The Department of Justice sued TikTok

TThe Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency.

The complaint, filed jointly with the Federal Trade Commission in federal court in California, comes as the U.S. and the prominent social media company are involved in another legal battle this will determine whether – or how – TikTok will continue to operate in the country.

The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok, a platform popular with young users, and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, violated a federal law that requires apps and websites aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from them. underage children. 13.

TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“This action is necessary to prevent these defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a large scale, from collecting and using private information from young children without any parental consent or control,” Brian M. Boynton, chief of the Justice Department’s Civil Division , said in a statement.

The US decided to open the case after an FTC investigation which looked at whether the companies were complying with a previous agreement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly, alleging it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by failing to notify parents about its collection and use of personal information from children under 13.

That same year, Musical.ly – acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and merged with TikTok – agreed to pay US$5.7 million to resolve these allegations. The two companies were also subject to a court order requiring them to comply with COPPA, which the government claims did not happen.

In the complaint, the Department of Justice and the FTC allege that TikTok knowingly allowed children to create accounts and withheld their personal information without notifying their parents. This practice extends to accounts created in “Kids Mode”, a version of TikTok for children under 13, Justice said in a press release explaining the process.

The two agencies allege that the information collected included in-app activity and other identifiers used to build user profiles. They also accuse TikTok of sharing the data with other companies — such as Meta’s Facebook and an analytics company called AppsFlyer — to persuade “Kids Mode” users to be on the platform more, a practice TikTok called “retargeting.” less active users.”

The complaint says TikTok also allowed children to create accounts without having to provide their age or obtain parental approval, using credentials from third-party services. It classified them as accounts of “unknown age,” which the agencies said had grown to millions.

After parents discovered some of their children’s accounts and asked for them to be deleted, federal authorities said their requests were not met. In a press release explaining the lawsuit, Justice said the alleged violations resulted in millions of children under the age of 13 using the regular TikTok app, allowing them to interact with adults and access adult content.

In March, a person involved in the matter told the AP that the FTC’s investigation was also looking into whether TikTok violated a part of federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying individuals in China access to users’ data. USA.

These allegations were not included in the complaint, which seeks civil sanctions and injunctive relief.