The U.S. Department of Justice and TikTok have agreed to a $400 million settlement to resolve allegations that the short-video app violated children's online privacy. The Justice Department announced the settlement, which will dismiss its lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance with prejudice.
The lawsuit, initially filed in 2024, accused the defendants of violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. This act requires services aimed at children to obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from users under the age of 13.
In January, ByteDance agreed to establish a majority American-owned joint venture to secure U.S. data, an arrangement intended to avoid a ban on the app, which is used by more than 200 million Americans.