Justice Department Sues TikTok for Allegedly Violating Child Privacy Law

The Justice Department and FTC filed a complaint alleging TikTok and its parent company obtained children’s data without parental consent.

A smartphone with a displayed TikTok logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken February 23, 2023. The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department filed a civil complaint alleging the platform violated children's privacy. Reuters/Dado Ruvic

Tiktok and its parent company ByteDance are facing a fresh lawsuit from President Joe Biden’s administration alleging that they failed to ensure data privacy for children using the social media platform.

Filed on Aug. 2, the civil complaint came from both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice in the Central District of California. TikTok, the administration claimed, violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA) and an associated FTC rule outlining how online services should handle data from children under 13 years of age.