
TikTok to pay $400 million settlement in US children's privacy case
TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to a $400 million settlement with the US Department of Justice regarding alleged violations of federal children鈥檚 privacy laws. The Department of Justice announced on Friday that TikTok will pay $300 million immediately, with an additional $100 million to be paid once a prior consent decree against TikTok鈥檚 predecessor, Musical.ly, is vacated. This settlement is described as one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a case related to the Children鈥檚 Online Privacy Protection Act COPPA. COPPA prohibits websites from collecting personal information from children under 13 without parental consent. The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly sued TikTok in 2024, alleging the platform endangered millions of children by collecting their personal data without parental permission. They claimed TikTok allowed children to use the app and collected personal data from young users without informing parents, even from accounts created in a "Kids Mode" for users under 13. A COPPA lawsuit was previously filed in 2019 against Musical.ly, which ByteDance acquired in 2017 and later merged into TikTok.



