US sues TikTok over mass scale privacy right violations of under-13 children

The US Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, for allegedly failing to protect children's privacy on the app as the Biden administration continues its crackdown on social media platforms.

The government alleged that TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act which requires services aimed at children to get parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13, according to Reuters.

TikTok boasts around 170 million users in the US and is fighting a new law that would force its parent company to divest TikTok's US assets or face a ban.

The suit, joined by the Federal Trade Commission, states, "It was aimed at putting an end to TikTok's unlawful massive-scale invasions of children's privacy."

Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said "The suit underscores the importance of divesting TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control. We simply cannot continue to allow our adversaries to harvest vast troves of Americans' sensitive data."

TikTok in a statement said it disagrees with the allegations, which, it claimed, relate to past events and practices that are "factually inaccurate or have been addressed."

"We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform," it said.

The DOJ said that TikTok knowingly allows children to create regular TikTok accounts and then create and share short videos and chat with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform.

The department alleges that for years millions of American children under-13 have been using TikTok and the site "has been collecting and retaining children's personal information."

"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids' privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," said FTC Chair Lina Khan, whose agency in June referred the case to the Justice Department.

The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day from TikTok for improperly collecting data, which could theoretically total billions of dollars if TikTok were found responsible.

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