The Justice Department said that TikTok illegally collected children’s data and knowingly allowed users under the age of 13 to create accounts.
The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday for illegally collecting children’s data, escalating a long-running battle between the U.S. government and the Chinese-owned app.
TikTok broke the law by gathering personal information from users under the age of 13 without their parents’ permission, according to the government’s complaint. The company knowingly allowed children under the age of 13 to create and use TikTok accounts, the government said, and frequently failed to honor parents’ requests to delete their children’s accounts.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, said those practices violated both the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a law that restricts the online tracking of children, and a 2019 agreement between TikTok and the government in which the company pledged to notify parents before collecting children’s data and remove videos from users under 13 years old.
The suit, which also names TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, asks for the court to fine the companies over the violations.
“With this action, the Department seeks to ensure that TikTok honors its obligation to protect children’s privacy rights and parents’ efforts to protect their children,” said Benjamin C. Mizer, the acting associate attorney general, in a statement.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest confrontation between the U.S. government and TikTok, which claims more than 170 million users in the United States. Earlier this year, President Biden signed a law that would force a sale or a ban of the app by the end of January because of national security concerns, and TikTok has sued to stop the government’s plan.