TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to resolve a US lawsuit alleging the platform violated children's online privacy laws by collecting vast amounts of data from users under 13 without parental consent.
The settlement with the Department of Justice stems from a 2024 lawsuit filed under the Biden administration accusing the companies of knowingly permitting children to create accounts and interacting with adults on the platform since 2019. TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million once the government vacates a 2019 consent decree with the Federal Trade Commission involving Musical.ly, ByteDance's predecessor. The department said TikTok failed to implement adequate restrictions on account creation for minors and made it difficult for parents to request deletions.
The agreement does not constitute an admission that TikTok violated the law. The company has since overhauled its age verification and parental controls following the lawsuit.