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Francisco: TikTok and parent company ByteDance have agreed to pay $400 million to settle a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice over claims that the video-sharing platform violated federal children\u2019s privacy laws, the department announced on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cUnder the settlement, TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and an additional $100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against TikTok\u2019s predecessor, Musical.ly,\u201d the department said in a statement.<\/p>\n It\u2019s \u201cone of the largest recoveries ever obtained\u201d from a case involving the Children\u2019s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the statement continued.<\/p>\n COPPA bars websites from gathering the personal information of children younger than 13 without parental permission.<\/p>\n The Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission jointly sued TikTok in 2024, alleging that it had placed the safety of millions of children in jeopardy by collecting their personal data without parental permission.<\/p>\n They claimed that TikTok allowed children to use the app in addition to collecting and using personal data from young users without letting their parents know.<\/p>\n Even accounts created in a \u201cKids Mode\u201d intended for users younger than 13 gathered email addresses and other personal information, the suit claimed.<\/p>\n In 2019, the US filed a COPPA lawsuit against an app called Musical.ly, which ByteDance bought in 2017 and then merged into TikTok.<\/p>\n TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n CCTV footage of TikToker Shamsoo Bibi\u2019s murder emerges<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n