A new lawsuit could lead to a wave of billions in fines against TikTok: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the social media platform TikTok, claiming the company is violating a new state law designed to protect the privacy of minors. The lawsuit, filed today (Thursday) in Galveston County, focuses on alleged violations of a law that was approved in 2023 and went into effect in September of that year.
By law, social media platforms are required to obtain permission from a parent or guardian before sharing, disclosing or selling minors’ personal information. They are also required to provide tools for parents and guardians to control the privacy settings of their children’s accounts. Paxton claims that TikTok does not provide appropriate tools that would allow parents to manage and control the privacy and safety of their children, as required by law.
The lawsuit claims that TikTok has not developed a reasonable commercial method that allows a parent or guardian to verify their identity or relationship to a minor using the platform. In addition, Paxton alleges that TikTok continues to disclose personal information of minors, such as username, profile picture and posted content, without obtaining verified parental consent. Paxton is seeking to impose civil penalties on TikTok of up to $10,000 for each violation of the law.
Texas is the second most populous state in the United States with 30 million inhabitants. If the lawsuit is accepted, it could lead to a legal precedent where TikTok will be sued for a wave of billions of dollars in fines at least in Texas alone.
This is not the first time that Tiktok has faced lawsuits regarding the violation of privacy. In 2021, the company faced a class action lawsuit in the UK that accused the platform of collecting children’s personal information without parental consent. The lawsuit claimed that TikTok violated the rights of hundreds of thousands of children in the UK, and demanded significant sums of compensation. The case ended in a confidential settlement, but it highlighted global concerns surrounding the platform’s handling of minors’ privacy.
In 2022, TikTok was fined $5.7 million in the United States after authorities accused it of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Act. The main claim was that the platform failed to obtain parental consent for minors under the age of 13, and that it did not delete the personal information of children, contrary to the requirements of the law.