DOJ suing TikTok over alleged 'widespread' child privacy violations

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the social media giant of unlawfully collecting and retaining data from children in violation of United States privacy laws.

The civil consumer protection complaint filed Friday in federal court in California accuses TikTok of collecting a "wide variety" of personal information from children who created accounts on the app dating back to 2019 through the present day.

The department further alleges that even when children created accounts in TikTok's designated "Kids Mode," the company still unlawfully collected and retained children's email addresses and other personal information without notifying or getting consent from parents.

The alleged privacy violations "have resulted in millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, subjecting them to extensive data collection and allowing them to interact with adult users and access adult content," the department said in a release announcing the lawsuit.

"The Department is deeply concerned that TikTok has continued to collect and retain children’s personal information despite a court order barring such conduct," acting Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement. "With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children."

A TikTok spokesperson disputed the allegations, saying many "relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed."

"We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform," the spokesperson said in a statement. "To that end, we offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors."

The lawsuit against the company was widely expected after the Federal Trade Commission in June announced it had referred a complaint to the DOJ following an investigation of TikTok and ByteDance's alleged violations under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

TikTok said at the time it disagreed with the FTC's allegations, which it argued were either inaccurate or outdated policy practices the company had already addressed.

The lawsuit also comes just days after the Justice Department argued in court filings that TikTok poses a unique threat to U.S. national security as it sought to defend a newly passed law that would require the company to sell its American-based operations or risk an all-out ban. The company has sued to block enforcement of the law before it takes effect in January, arguing it is unconstitutional and would violate its more than 170 million American users' First Amendment rights.