Justice Department reaches $400 million settlement with TikTok over child privacy case
New York — TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, reached a $400 million settlement with the US Justice Department over children’s privacy litigation on Friday, one of the largest amounts yet for a case of this kind. The Justice Department first sued TikTok in 2024, claiming the app failed to stop children from joining the app … The post Justice Department reaches $400 million settlement with…
The US Justice Department recently secured a $400 million settlement with TikTok over a child privacy lawsuit, marking one of the highest recoveries in a Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) case. In 2024, the Justice Department sued TikTok, alleging the app failed to prevent children from joining and unlawfully collected their personal data, in breach of COPPA.
Part of the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million upfront, with an additional $100 million tied to a 2019 Federal Trade Commission order concerning ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly, merged with TikTok in 2017. The lawsuit in 2024 stemmed from the 2019 agreement, claiming TikTok continued to gather data from children, including email addresses, phone numbers, and location information, without complying with parent requests to delete their children's information.
Despite claiming many allegations were inaccurate or addressed, TikTok implemented changes to enhance safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and strengthen parental oversight. Earlier this year, TikTok announced plans to offload its US assets to American investors such as Oracle and Silver Lake. No liability determination has been made yet.
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