TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to a $400 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. The Biden-era lawsuit, filed in 2024, accused the short-form video app of violating children's online privacy laws by illegally collecting information from users under the age of 13.
The Department of Justice alleged that TikTok and ByteDance collected vast amounts of data on millions of children without obtaining the required parental consent, violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. This settlement is believed to be one of the largest ever reached regarding the issue of children's online privacy.
Under the terms of the agreement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately. An additional $100 million will be paid upon the entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered with the Federal Trade Commission in 2019 against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.