US Government Sues TikTok Over Alleged Child Privacy Violations
The US government has initiated a lawsuit against TikTok, accusing the popular social media platform of illegally collecting data from children and neglecting parental requests to delete their children’s accounts.
The Department of Justice claims that TikTok’s practices represent a “massive-scale” breach of child privacy laws, which mandate online companies to secure parental consent before gathering information on users under 13 years old. Officials have highlighted that TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, are “repeat offenders,” referencing a similar lawsuit from 2019.
TikTok has refuted these accusations, asserting that they take the protection of children seriously. The company claims to have taken proactive measures to remove underage users and implement safety features, such as default screen-time limits and enhanced privacy settings for minors.
A TikTok spokesperson responded to the lawsuit by stating, “We disagree with these allegations, many of which pertain to past practices that have either been corrected or are factually incorrect. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to enhance the platform’s safety features.”
This legal action intensifies the existing pressure on TikTok and ByteDance, who are already confronting potential US legislation that could ban the platform from the country. The lawsuit alleges that TikTok employed inadequate methods for detecting accounts created by children and hindered parents’ attempts to delete these accounts.
According to the filing, a review of 1,700 parental requests to delete accounts made between 2019 and 2020 showed that 30% of these accounts were still active as of November 2021. Moderators responsible for reviewing flagged accounts were reportedly only permitted to act if there was a clear admission of the user’s age and had limited access to user videos, often only having a few seconds to make a decision.
The lawsuit calls for the court to halt TikTok’s alleged violations and impose penalties for each infraction. Brian Boynton, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, stated, “This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders operating on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children’s private information without parental consent or control.”
With over 1 billion global users and more than 170 million in the US, TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide. Pew Research surveys reveal that over 60% of US teens aged 13-17 use TikTok, with more than half engaging daily.
The lawsuit aims to “put an end” to what the US government describes as TikTok’s “unlawful massive-scale invasions of children’s privacy.” The company has previously faced fines in the UK and Europe over similar privacy concerns.
