TikTok reaches $400 million settlement with US Justice Department over children’s privacy
TikTok has agreed to pay $400 million to resolve a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit accusing the company of breaking federal children’s privacy laws, closing a case that has hung over the platform since 2024.
Under the settlement, announced Friday, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million once a court order vacates an earlier consent decree tied to Musical.ly, the predecessor app that ByteDance acquired and later merged into TikTok.
“This settlement is a major victory for American children and parents,” U.S. Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. said in a statement. “The Department’s priority is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations. This resolution secures a substantial recovery while reinforcing the protections that families expect and deserve.”
The settlement lands as TikTok continues to work through separate political and regulatory pressures in the United States. In January, the company moved to restructure its U.S. arm by signing agreements with Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX to form a new TikTok U.S. joint venture.
The Justice Department’s 2024 lawsuit centered on allegations that TikTok and ByteDance violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by collecting personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. The government also accused the companies of ignoring parents’ requests to delete children’s accounts and of retaining accounts that the companies knew belonged to underage users.
A representative for TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
The settlement comes amid a broader crackdown on social media companies over young users’ safety and privacy. Meta Platforms, Instagram’s parent company, is currently on trial in federal court in Oakland, California, over allegations that it violated COPPA and state laws. At the same time, a growing number of governments have moved to restrict or ban younger children and teens from social media apps, raising the pressure on platforms to change how they collect and protect data from minors.