SAN FRANCISCO, United States: TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice over claims that the video-sharing platform violated federal children’s privacy laws, the department announced on Friday.
Regulators around the world have been ramping up enforcement against social media companies that violate laws around protecting children’s data, privacy and safety.
Chinese company ByteDance — which sold off a majority stake of its US entity earlier this year in order to avoid a ban by the Trump administration — is also named as part of the settlement. It has a 19.9 percent ownership stake in TikTok US, according to US media.
“Under the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly,” the department said in a statement.
It’s “one of the largest recoveries ever obtained” from a case involving the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the statement continued.
