US sues TikTok over privacy violations involving children under 13

US Justice Department launched a legal battle against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, on Friday (Aug 2), accusing the social media platform of violating children's privacy laws.

The lawsuit is the latest move by the Biden administration to increase pressure on TikTok.

The US government said TikTok violated the ‘Children's Online Privacy Protection Act’ that involve services aimed at children to get parental approval to collect personal information from users under age 13.

Notably, the Chinese-owned short-video platform boasts around 170 million US users, and presently is fighting a new law that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok's US assets by Jan 19 or face a ban.

Amidst escalating tensions, US has taken another step against TikTok and its parent company. The lawsuit stems from fears that the platform is a medium for the Chinese government to collect sensitive American data and influence public opinion through content manipulation.

The suit states it is aimed at putting an end to TikTok's unlawful massive-scale invasions of children's privacy.

Representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the suit "underscores the importance of divesting TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control. We simply cannot continue to allow our adversaries to harvest vast troves of Americans’ sensitive data."

Frank Pallone further statedthat the lawsuit "highlights the need to dissociate from TikTok from Chinese Communist Party control. We cannot allow our adversaries to continue harvesting large amounts of Americans’ sensitive data."

While TikTok on Friday said, it disagrees "with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed."

As per the Department of Justice, TikTok on purpose permitted children to create regular TikTok accounts, and then create and share short-form videos and messages with adults and others on the regular TikTok platform.

TikTok collected personal information from these children without obtaining consent from their parents.

The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day from TikTok for improperly collecting data, which could potentially amount to billions of dollars if TikTok is found liable.

(With inputs from agencies)