There's more trouble for the popular video-sharing app TikTok. On Friday, the US Department of Justice sued the company and its parent company, ByteDance, alleging that the app violated children's privacy laws. In the suit, the government says that the site knowingly allowed children under 13 years old to make and use accounts without parental consent, collected "extensive data" from those children, and didn't delete the accounts and data even when parents asked for that.
"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids' privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country," said FTC Chair Lina Khan in a statement. "The FTC will continue to use the full scope of its authorities to protect children online — especially as firms deploy increasingly sophisticated digital tools to surveil kids and profit from their data."
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A TikTok spokesperson said that the company disagrees with the allegations, and that many of the charges are inaccurate or relate to past events and practices that have been addressed.
"We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform," the spokeperson said. "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."
What's led up to the suit
It's just the latest development in the battle between the US government and the popular app, which is owned by a company based in China. In April, President Joe Biden signed into law legislation that would effectively ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sells it. That law gives ByteDance up to a year to sell TikTok to a buyer deemed fit by US officials.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said that TikTok could be used by China's government to spy on Americans or otherwise threaten national security. TikTok has denied those allegations. Some free speech and digital rights groups say that what's really needed is a set of comprehensive digital privacy laws that would protect Americans' personal information, not singling out TikTok. But if the government gets its way, it could require the removal of TikTok from US app stores.
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Earlier this week, the Senate passed bipartisan legislation on a similar issue, voting to impose safety and privacy requirements for children on technology platforms. That legislation touches on some of the issues addressed in the TikTok suit, including creating an "eraser button" that would let parents and children delete their personal information from a service. The measure was sent to the House, which is in recess until September.
TikTok and kids
Since 2019, TikTok has included a Kids Mode, where users who say they are under 13 are given an account that can view videos, but cannot create or upload them, message other users or post public information.
The suit says TikTok still collects and uses certain personal information from such users. And the suit notes that young users are easily able to get around TikTok's age requirements, simply by trying again with a different birthday. Until 2022, young users could also evade the age requirement, because TikTok let them log in with credentials from other services, such as Google or Instagram, dubbing these "age unknown" accounts.
The suit also says that the company made it difficult for parents to request deletion of their child's account, noting that "the word 'delete' does not appear in many of defendants' online parental guidance materials." And the suit says the company knew this was happening, citing a 2018 exchange where a child-safety employee questions why parents had to fill out a second form after they'd already requested the account's deletion.