TikTok $400M privacy settlement: California judge blocks key part
TikTok reached $400 million privacy settlement with US in August
A California federal judge tentatively partly blocked the US government’s $400 million settlement with TikTok over alleged violation of children’s privacy.
As reported by Bloomberg, the US District Judge Geoge H. Wu denied a request to vacate a privacy order originally placed on Musical.ly which was the predecessor of TikTok acquired by ByteDance.
The order mandates specific privacy protections for users under the age of 13 as neither TikTok nor the US government demonstrated that these ongoing obligations are obsolete.
Wu also argued that changes brought by the company to its ownership structure, its compliance measures and reaching a $400 million settlement neither justified the non-necessity of protections nor proved that the company had substantially complied with the existing order.
According to the judge, he intends to retain oversight of TikTok’s privacy practices. This ruling could directly impact a $400 million settlement reached between TikTok and the US government in August to resolve child privacy allegations. It also adds a layer of complication to TikTok operations based in the United States after years of scrutiny.
Last year, ByteDance and the Trump administration finalized a deal aimed at transferring parts of TikTok operations to American investors, giving a solution to the dispute over the video platform’s ownership and operations in the US.
Wu's ruling is still preliminary, and a hearing regarding the government's motion to lift the consent decree is set for September 21.
