TikTok Faces Civil Lawsuit for COPPA Violations, Millions of Children Affected
The U.S. Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has initiated a civil lawsuit against the popular app TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance. Authorities accuse the developers of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
According to the lawsuit, ByteDance and TikTok have allowed millions of users under the age of 13 to create accounts without parental consent for years, despite requiring users to provide their date of birth during registration. Young users could freely post content and interact with others, including adults, while the app collected and stored their personal information.
If the company’s guilt is proven, it faces enormous fines—up to $51,744 for each violation per day. The total amount could reach billions of dollars.
Among the data collected by TikTok are names, ages, email addresses, phone numbers, device and location information, photos, videos, and audio files containing the child’s image and voice.
U.S. authorities have long sought to limit the platform’s influence. In April, President Biden signed a law requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American assets by January 19. However, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew stated that he intends to contest this decision.
Former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump also supported the idea of banning TikTok in the past.
On July 26, authorities brought another charge against the company for transferring confidential information to China. Additionally, lawmakers have long argued that TikTok negatively impacts teenagers’ mental health.
The platform itself denies all allegations. Nonetheless, this is far from the first lawsuit. Last year, the company was fined in the EU and the UK for similar accusations.
On July 30, the U.S. Senate passed a separate bill expanding COPPA protections to teenagers up to 17 years old. The new law will ban targeted advertising to minors and allow for the removal of personal information from social networks.
According to government data, in 2022, two-thirds of American teenagers used TikTok, and by the end of 2023, nearly half of young Americans reported using the app several times a day.
