US Department of Justice Sues TikTok
The US Department of Justice is escalating its fight against TikTok and, by extension, its parent company ByteDance. The government is suing the company for illegally collecting data from users under 13 without the permission of those children’s parents.
The lawsuit alleges that TikTok knew these users were under 13 when it allowed them to create accounts on the app. To make matters worse, the DOJ alleges that when parents asked TikTok to delete their children’s accounts, the company often failed to comply.
According to the government, there are two key violations here: The Justice Department says TikTok violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which contains strict rules for tracking children’s online activity. The Justice Department also says TikTok violated a 2019 agreement the company made with the government requiring TikTok to tell parents before it collects children’s data and to remove videos from users under 13.
TikTok and the US are at odds
This is just the latest development in the battle between TikTok and the US government. Congress has been scrutinizing TikTok for years, viewing the app as a major security threat to Americans. ByteDance is based in China, which means it is required to comply with Chinese government data requests. The US government believes this is a huge vulnerability that potentially allows the Chinese government to collect data from US users, as well as influence what content US users actually see.
Earlier this year, Congress got its wish by passing a bill that would ban the app in the US unless ByteDance abandoned it. President Biden signed the bill, meaning ByteDance will either have to sell or risk losing hundreds of millions of American users. For a full explanation of the situation , check out my TikTok ban thread .
However, TikTok responded by suing the US over the bill , citing constitutional violations. Now there are two lawsuits going on between the US and TikTok and a ban looming. Whatever one may say, things are not going well for the beloved short video app.