US sues TikTok for violating online privacy laws for kids

Department of Justice claims TikTok failed to honour requests by parents to have their children's accounts removed

The United States sued TikTok on Friday, saying it had placed the safety of millions of children in jeopardy by collecting their personal data without parental permission. It was Washington's latest legal broadside launched at TikTok, which is also battling a US law for its Chinese parent ByteDance to sell the video platform or else face a nationwide ban.

The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) joined forces in Friday's civil suit saying the video-snippet sharing app broke the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). "TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids' privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," FTC chair Lina Khan said in a release.

COPPA bars websites from gathering the personal information of children younger than 13 without parental permission. The suit argues that since 2019 TikTok has allowed children to use the app, collecting and using personal data from young users without letting their parents know. Even accounts created in a "Kids Mode" intended for users younger than 13 gathered email addresses and other personal information, the suit contends.

TikTok and its parent company ByteDance often "failed to honour" requests by parents to have their children's accounts and data removed, and had ineffective policies for identifying and deleting accounts created by children, Justice Department officials said in the release.

TikTok spokesman Alexander Haurek maintained that the company has safeguards to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and removes accounts suspected of being from underage users. "We disagree with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed," he told AFP. "We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."

Five years ago, the US filed a COPPA-focused suit against an app called Musical.ly, which ByteDance had bought and merged into TikTok. That case resulted in TikTok having to take steps to comply with the children's privacy act, according to justice department officials.

Security threat?

A bill signed by President Joe Biden early this year set a mid-January 2025 deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban. The law stems from Washington's concerns that ByteDance could, and would, comply with Chinese government demands for data about US users or yield to pressure to censor or promote content on the platform. The Justice Department says TikTok - which has 170 million US users - is "a national-security threat of immense depth and scale."

TikTok has filed a suit in a Washington federal court arguing that the law violates First Amendment rights of free speech. The US response counters that the law addresses national security concerns, not speech, and that China-based ByteDance is not able to claim First Amendment rights in the United States.

ByteDance has said it has no plans to sell TikTok, leaving the lawsuit, which will likely go to the US Supreme Court, as its only option to avoid a ban.

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