TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a federal lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice, accusing the platform of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, known as COPPA. The company is alleged to have knowingly allowed children under 13 to create accounts without obtaining parental consent, and then collected their personal data anyway. The settlement, announced in 2026, does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by TikTok. This amount represents a significant increase compared to the $5.7 million fine imposed in 2019 on Musical.ly, TikTok’s predecessor app, for similar violations.
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