TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance have reached a $400 million settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve a 2024 lawsuit alleging the social media platform violated federal laws related to children's privacy. The DOJ said Friday that TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million after an order vacates an earlier consent decree against its predecessor company, Musical.ly. The lawsuit focused on allegations that TikTok and ByteDance violated a federal law requiring kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13, and that they failed to honor parents' requests to delete their children's accounts. U.S. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. called the settlement a major victory for American children and parents. The settlement comes as social media companies face a wave of lawsuits over children's safety and privacy, with Meta Platforms currently on trial in federal court in Oakland, California, over similar allegations.
Meta Platforms Inc.
Oracle CorporationTikTok and ByteDance settle $400M DOJ child privacy lawsuit.
