A federal judge in Los Angeles has signaled an intention to reject portions of a proposed 400 million dollar settlement between TikTok, its parent company ByteDance, and the United States Department of Justice. The agreement was intended to resolve allegations that the short-video platform violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
The legal dispute originated from a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, which alleged that TikTok and ByteDance failed to adequately protect children’s privacy and illegally collected personal information from users under the age of 13 without parental consent. Under the terms of the proposed settlement, TikTok agreed to pay 300 million dollars immediately, with an additional 100 million dollars contingent upon a court decision to terminate a 2019 consent decree originally issued against Musical.ly, the platform that preceded TikTok.
On Friday, September 18, U.S. District Judge George H. Wu indicated he is inclined to deny the request to terminate the 2019 consent decree. Judge Wu stated that the parties had provided insufficient detail, noting that the court could not determine if the proposal constituted a lasting remedy or if the termination of the order was appropriately adjusted to reflect alleged changes in circumstances. The 2019 order requires TikTok to maintain specific reporting and record-keeping obligations until 2029.
The U.S. government has argued that TikTok has undergone significant changes regarding its ownership structure, management, and compliance measures since the lawsuit was initiated. In court filings, the TikTok U.S. joint venture stated that the platform now requires all users to provide a date of birth and has implemented an age-verification system designed to identify users under 13 who may have misrepresented their age.
Judge Wu has scheduled a hearing for the following Monday to further address the matter. As of the report, neither TikTok nor the Department of Justice has issued a formal response to the judge’s preliminary decision.
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