(Yicai) Aug. 24 -- Chinese internet giant ByteDance and its short-video platform TikTok have settled a litigation over children’s privacy with the US Department of Justice for a total of USD400 million.

TikTok will pay USD300 million immediately and additional USD100 million upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree entered against its predecessor Musical.ly for resolving a litigation concerning compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, the DOJ announced on Aug. 21. This is one of the largest settlements ever in a COPPA case.

The DOJ filed an underlying lawsuit in the US District Court for the Central District of California on Aug. 2, 2024, claiming that TikTok and ByteDance had collected and retained children's personal information in violation of the COPPA. The case was handled by the Civil Division's Enforcement and Affirmative Litigation Branch on referral from the Federal Trade Commission.

TikTok has undergone significant changes to its ownership, management, compliance functions, and privacy practices, including implementing measures to strengthen safeguards for younger users, improve age-related controls, and enhance parental oversight, since the lawsuit was filed, the DOJ noted. “These developments have materially advanced the public interests underlying the litigation.”

The claims resolved in the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability, the DOJ specified.

In January, TikTok announced that TikTok USDS Joint Venture was established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by US President Trump in September 2025. The JV is led by a seven-member, majority-American board, with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX Fund Management each holding a 15 percent stake, and ByteDance retaining 19.9 percent.

TikTok USDS JV operates TikTok under defined safeguards through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurances, with US user data stored in Oracle's US cloud environment.

Editor: Futura Costaglione