Justice Department reaches $400 million settlement with TikTok over child privacy case

New York — 

TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, reached a $400 million settlement with the US Justice Department over children’s privacy litigation on Friday, one of the largest amounts yet for a case of this kind.

The Justice Department first sued TikTok in 2024, claiming the app failed to stop children from joining the app and unlawfully collected their personal data. That violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Justice Department said.

It’s the latest settlement in an onslaught of lawsuits and scrutiny against major tech companies and social media platforms, alleging harm to children.

Friday’s settlement is “one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a COPPA case,” a press release from the Justice Department said.

As part of the settlement, TikTok will immediately pay $300 million, and then another $100 million related to a 2019 Federal Trade Commission order involving Musical.ly, a video-sharing app Bytedance bought in 2017 and merged with TikTok.

The lawsuit in 2024 stemmed from that 2019 agreement. The Justice Department alleged that TikTok continued to collect data on children, such as email addresses, phone numbers and location data, and failed to comply with requests from parents to delete their children’s information, all in violation of the agreement, which required that the company take specific measures to abide by COPPA.

In 2024, TikTok said many of the allegations “relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”

Since the lawsuit, TikTok has implemented a number of changes, including “extensive measures designed to strengthen safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and enhance parental oversight,” the Justice Department said in the press release.

Last year, TikTok announced it would spin off its American assets to mostly American investors, such as Oracle and private equity firm Silver Lake, a deal pushed by President Donald Trump.

CNN has reached out to TikTok for comment. There has been no determination of liability in the claims.