The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its China-based owner ByteDance, alleging in federal court that the popular Culver City-based app violated child privacy laws by collecting personal information from millions of Americans under the age of 13.According to the complaint, TikTok has, for years, allowed children under 13 to create and use accounts without their parents' knowledge or consent.
In addition to the federal lawsuit, President Joe Biden signed a bill in April that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban. The legislation gives ByteDance potentially up to a year to sell the video-based social media platform to a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban from U.S. app stores and hosting services.TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.