The Department of Justice said on Friday that TikTok and China’s ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle claims that the social media platform violated U.S. children’s online privacy laws.
The agency sued TikTok in 2024, alleging that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by collecting and retaining data from its young users without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents.
The lawsuit, which stemmed from a Federal Trade Commission investigation, claimed that TikTok had knowingly permitted children to create accounts and interact with adults on the platform since 2019.
In its statement on Friday, the Justice Department said that TikTok has since made significant changes to its management structure and implemented more safeguards to protect younger users, including age-related controls and enhanced parental oversight.
“Those developments have materially advanced the public interests underlying the Department’s litigation and have strengthened protections for millions of American families,” the agency said.
ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
— This is a developing story and will be updated.
