FTC Slams TikTok With Lawsuit After Continued COPPA Violations

The Justice Department, alongside the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), filed a civil lawsuit against TikTok on Aug. 2, due to allegations that the popular social media app and its parent company, ByteDance, violate children's online privacy protections.

In 2019, Musical.ly, TikTok's predecessor, was sued for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits website operators from knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children under the age of 13 unless express consent is obtained from the child's parents. The company was then court ordered to adhere to certain measures in compliance with COPPA.

Since that time, TikTok allegedly has continued to allow children to create TikTok accounts as well as content on the platform, and has collected and retained personal information from these accounts without notifying the children's parents or obtaining consent, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ) and FTC. They also said that the company has failed to honor deletion requests from parents of those underage profiles.

"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids' privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," said FTC chair Lina Khan in a DoJ announcement. "The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online — especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data."