TikTok's effort to put a major children's privacy case behind it has hit a hurdle. A federal judge is questioning whether the company should be allowed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars while also walking away from an earlier court order tied to similar allegations.
Here's what to know
The judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge George Wu, has indicated that part of the proposed $400 million deal between TikTok and the U.S. Justice Department may not survive court review, Reuters reported.
Wu's concern centers on the section of the agreement that would end a 2019 consent decree the Federal Trade Commission entered against TikTok's predecessor, Musical.ly.
Per the settlement, announced last month, TikTok and ByteDance would pay $300 million immediately, while the remaining $100 million would be owed only if the older consent decree is vacated.
In court filings, Wu questioned whether ending that order would provide a lasting fix, writing that the court "cannot determine that it constitutes a durable remedy or that termination is suitably tailored to the asserted change in circumstance," according to Reuters.
At the heart of the case are claims that personal information was collected from minors without permissions required by law.
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More background
The 2019 order stems from FTC allegations that Musical.ly knew users younger than 13 were using the app and still gathered names and other personal information without first obtaining parental consent, in violation of children's online privacy law.
That matter resulted in a $5.7 million fine, and the decree put TikTok under reporting obligations that remain in place through 2029.
If the order is terminated early, per the DOJ settlement, one of the app's clearest formal oversight mechanisms could disappear years ahead of schedule.
The current case began in 2024, when the Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance, accusing them of failing to properly protect children's privacy and unlawfully collecting their data.
In the department's August announcement of its $400 million settlement with the companies, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the DOJ's priority "is ensuring that children are protected online and that companies entrusted with their personal information meet their legal obligations."
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