TikTok to pay $400m to US in one of largest child privacy settlements
TikTok has agreed to pay $400m (£293m) to the US to settle a lawsuit alleging its platform violated children‘s privacy, marking one of the largest-ever settlements over the issue.
TikTok has agreed to pay a massive $400 million to the US government in the largest child privacy settlement ever seen. This deal was reached as part of a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden. The lawsuit accused TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, of collecting excessive amounts of data from millions of users below the age of 13, which violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
The US Attorney General, Brett Shumate, stated that children and parents are now better protected compared to when the case began.
This settlement joins a growing list of penalties that major tech companies have paid to the US government for COPPA violations. Google's YouTube, for instance, paid $170 million in 2019, while Epic Games paid $275 million in 2022. Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, is now facing penalties that could exceed hundreds of billions of dollars due to COPPA violations alleged by attorneys general from 29 US states.
The lawsuit against TikTok began before last year's division of its US business and operations from its original base in China. However, the settlement only pertains to TikTok's operations in China. ByteDance, the privately-held company behind TikTok, was recently valued at $550 billion. The terms of the settlement require TikTok and ByteDance to pay $300 million immediately, and another $100 million when the government lifts a 2019 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission.
Under this agreement, the predecessor to ByteDance, Musical.ly, was previously penalized with a $5.7 million fine for COPPA violations and required to obtain parental consent for any users under the age of 13. While the Justice Department did not specify any additional actions against TikTok beyond this fine, they noted that since the lawsuit was filed, TikTok has undergone significant changes such as changes in ownership, privacy practices, and platform controls for young users.
Written by urgent.news from MyJoyOnline Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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