TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, have agreed to a $400 million settlement to settle federal allegations that the social media platform violated laws designed to protect young users' privacy. The case, stemming from a lawsuit first filed in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Biden administration, claimed TikTok failed to obtain necessary parental consent for millions of children under 13.

The settlement includes enhanced measures aimed at better safeguarding young users, such as stronger age-related controls and additional safeguards designed to enhance parental oversight. However, neither TikTok nor ByteDance admitted any wrongdoing as part of the agreement. Axios was first to report this news.

Despite previous federal action in 2019, where TikTok agreed to pay $5.7 million for similar violations of COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), the company faced ongoing scrutiny over its ability to identify and remove underage users, who continued to generate data used for targeted advertising.

The settlement comes amid growing concerns about user safety on platforms like TikTok. Just days before the agreement was reached, Bloomberg reported that TikTok had intentionally disabled an algorithmic safeguard aimed at reducing exposure to harmful content for roughly 10% of U.S. users as part of a testing experiment. The move drew criticism from lawmakers.