The administration of US President Donald Trump is reportedly close to reaching a settlement with the video-sharing app TikTok concerning allegations of children’s privacy violations, involving an amount of approximately $40 million. According to ABC News, these funds are intended for use in discussions related to the ‘Beautification Project’ proposed by Trump for the Washington, D.C. area. Previously, Trump had requested a $10 billion budget from the US Congress for various projects in the capital region.
Reports indicate that White House officials have been in talks for several weeks regarding the legal use of this amount to construct a 76-meter-high ‘Triumphal Arch’ near Arlington National Cemetery, a project proposed by Trump. The White House has declined to comment on the matter, referring all inquiries to the US Department of Justice, which has yet to respond. TikTok has also not responded to requests for comments from news organizations.
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in 2024 against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, alleging the unauthorized collection of personal data from millions of American children under the age of 13 without parental consent. The US government claims TikTok violated the ‘Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act’ (COPPA), which mandates obtaining parental consent before collecting personal data from users under 13 in child-directed services.
In the lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), it is noted that TikTok allowed children to open regular accounts, share short videos and messages with other users, and collected their personal information without parental approval. Meanwhile, ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, is reportedly finalizing a joint venture agreement in January that would be majority-owned by Americans to ensure US data security and potentially avoid a ban in the United States.
