US government sues TikTok, accusing the company of illegally collecting children's data

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the social media giant of unlawfully collecting and retaining data from children in violation of United States privacy laws.

The civil consumer protection complaint filed Friday in federal court in California accuses TikTok of collecting a "wide variety" of personal information from children who created accounts on the app dating back to 2019 through the present day.

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The department further alleges that even when children created accounts in TikTok's designated "Kids Mode," the company still unlawfully collected and retained children's email addresses and other personal information without notifying or getting consent from parents.

The alleged privacy violations "have resulted in millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, subjecting them to extensive data collection and allowing them to interact with adult users and access adult content," the department said in a release announcing the lawsuit.