The long running war between TikTok and the US government gained a new chapter today as the Department of Justice sued TikTok and the social media platform's China-based owner Bytedance.
As reported by The Washington Post, the DOJ is alleging that the popular video app violated children's privacy law because it was collecting data on Americans younger than 13.
In their legal complaint, the Justice Department stated that the app made it too easy for kids under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts. "For years, Defendants have knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without their parents’ knowledge or consent, have collected extensive data from those children, and have failed to comply with parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts and personal information."
This was all done in violation of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the DOJ said.
This isn't the first time that TikTok has been sued for this exact violation. Before becoming TikTok, the app was known as Music.ly with a focus mostly on lip-syncing, like how TikTok was in its early days. According to the filing, Music.ly was charged $5.7 million in 2019 and ordered to delete children's data and enact protective changes. The DOJ alleges that TikTok immediately reverted to violating COPPA after that court order.
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