WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday against TikTok and parent company ByteDance for failing to protect children's privacy on the social media app as the Biden administration continues its crackdown on the social media site.
The government said TikTok violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act that requires services aimed at children to obtain parental consent to collect personal information from users under age 13.
The Chinese-owned short-video platform boasts around 170 million U.S. users, and is currently fighting a new law that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
The lawsuit is the latest U.S. action against TikTok and its Chinese parent over fears the company improperly collects vast amounts of data on Americans for the Chinese government, while influencing content in a way that could harm Americans.
The suit, which was joined by the Federal Trade Commission, said it was 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."
TikTok said Friday it disagrees "with these allegations, many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. We are proud of our efforts to protect children, and we will continue to update and improve the platform."
The DOJ said TikTok knowingly 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 U.S. alleges that for years millions of American children under 13 have been using TikTok and the site "has been collecting and retaining children's personal information."
"TikTok knowingly and repeatedly violated kids’ privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children across the country,” said FTC Chair Lina Khan, whose agency in June referred the case to the Justice Department.
The FTC is seeking penalties of up to $51,744 per violation per day from TikTok for improperly collecting data, which could theoretically total billions of dollars if TikTok were found liable.
Reuters in 2020 first reported the FTC and Justice Department were looking into allegations the popular social media app failed to live up to a 2019 agreement aimed at protecting children's privacy.
The company last year faced fines from the European Union and U.K. over its handling of children's data.
On Tuesday, U.S. Senate passed a bill that would extend COPPA to cover teenagers up to age 17, ban targeted advertising to kids and teens, and give parents and kids the option to delete their information from social media platforms.
The bill would need to pass in the Republican-controlled House, currently on recess until September, to become law.
A group of 21 states and more than 50 U.S. lawmakers on Friday backed the Justice Department in its defense of a law that requires China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. assets by Jan. 19 or face a ban.
"TikTok is a threat to national security and consumer privacy," said a court filing led by the state attorneys general of Montana and Virginia.
"Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the risk of the Chinese Communist Party accessing and exploiting their data."
A group of more than 50 lawmakers led by U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican and chair of the House select China committee and the panel's top Democrat Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, said in a separate filing the law "provides a clear, achievable path for affected companies to resolve the pressing and non-hypothetical national security threats posed by their current ownership structures."