TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have reached a $400 million deal with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve allegations that the social media platform violated federal laws designed to protect children’s online privacy.
The case arises from a lawsuit First introduced in 2024 by the Department of Justice under the Biden administration. The Department of Justice alleged that TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by allowing millions of children under the age of 13 to use the platform, while collecting their personal information without the required parental consent.
In addition to paying $400 million, the agreement includes measures aimed at strengthening protection for young users. Those changes include stricter age-related controls, additional safeguards for children and measures designed to give parents better oversight of their children’s activity and personal information. However, the agreement does not require TikTok or ByteDance to admit wrongdoing. axios He was the first to break the news.
The 2024 case alleged that TikTok allowed large numbers of children to remain on the platform for years, even though it was already facing federal action over children’s privacy in 2019. The company agreed to pay $5.7 million to resolve allegations that its predecessor, Musical.ly, had violated COPPA. As part of that agreement, the company agreed to take steps to prevent children under 13 from creating accounts.
However, according to the allegations, TikTok continued to struggle to identify and remove underage users. The case alleged that the company maintained and used information belonging to children, including data that could be used for targeted advertising, even after employees raised concerns about the presence of young users on the platform.
It also alleged that TikTok changed aspects of its registration policies in ways that made it more difficult to determine whether users were old enough to join the service.
The deal comes as TikTok faces more scrutiny about its approach to user security. Just a few days before the agreement, Bloomberg reported that TikTok had intentionally disabled an algorithmic protection for about 10% of American users as part of an experiment. The safeguard was designed to reduce the chance of users being overwhelmed by harmful or potentially harmful content.
The report drew criticism from lawmakers. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut sent a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Adam Presser, CEO of the company’s U.S. business, questioning the decision.
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