TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, agreed to a $400 million settlement to resolve litigation regarding alleged violations of a children’s online privacy law, the Justice Department announced Friday.
The Biden administration’s Justice Department filed a lawsuit against TikTok in 2024 accusing TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act by knowingly allowing children under 13 to create regular accounts, collecting their personal data without parental consent and failing to delete kids’ data when requested.
Under the terms, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and $100 million upon vacating the prior Musical.ly consent decree, TikTok’s predecessor.
The settlement represents one of the largest recoveries ever obtained in a Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act case, according to the Justice Department.
Since the Justice Department filed its complaint, TikTok has undergone “significant changes to its ownership, management, compliance functions, and privacy practices,” according to the department. It implemented “extensive measures” aimed at strengthening safeguards for younger users, improving age-related controls and enhancing parental oversight.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said that the most important result of the lawsuit is that children and parents are better protected now than they were when this case began.
“This settlement reflects substantial progress, secures a significant monetary recovery, and brings this matter to a successful conclusion,” he said in a statement.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward Jr. called the settlement a “major victory” for U.S. children and parents.
“The Department’s priority is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations,” he said in a statement. “This resolution secures a substantial recovery while reinforcing the protections that families expect and deserve.”
President Trump delayed and ultimately bypassed a congressionally mandated ban on TikTok by orchestrating the creation of a majority American-owned entity, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC, in January.
Congress passed legislation in 2024 requiring ByteDance to divest its U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban, a mandate later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Upon taking office, Mr. Trump signed a series of executive orders halting enforcement of the statutory ban, granting multiple extensions as negotiations over a divestiture deal repeatedly stalled.
In September of last year, he signed an executive order approving a framework that valued the operations and restructured ownership.
Now the app can keep running for over 200 million U.S. users by securing data, apps and algorithms on Oracle’s cloud system.
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