The Justice Department sued TikTok on Friday, accusing the company of violating children’s online privacy law and running afoul of a settlement it had reached with another federal agency.

The complaint, filed together with the Federal Trade Commission in a California federal court, comes as the U.S. and the prominent social media company are embroiled in yet another legal battle that will determine if – or how – TikTok will continue to operate in the country.

The latest lawsuit focuses on allegations that TikTok, a trend-setting platform popular among young users, and its China-based parent company ByteDance violated a federal law that requires kid-oriented apps and websites to get parental consent before collecting personal information of children under 13. It also says the companies failed to honor requests from parents who wanted their children’s accounts deleted, and chose not to delete accounts even when the firms knew they belonged to kids under 13.

“This action is necessary to prevent the defendants, who are repeat offenders and operate on a massive scale, from collecting and using young children’s private information without any parental consent or control,” Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, said in a statement.

TikTok said it disagreed with the allegations, “many of which relate to past events and practices that are factually inaccurate or have been addressed.”

“We offer age-appropriate experiences with stringent safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users and have voluntarily launched features such as default screentime limits, Family Pairing, and additional privacy protections for minors,” the company said in a statement.

The U.S. decided to file the lawsuit following an investigation by the FTC that looked into whether the companies were complying with a previous settlement involving TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly.

In 2019, the federal government sued Musical.ly, alleging it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by failing to notify parents about its collection and use of personal information for kids under 13.

That same year, Musical.ly — acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and merged with TikTok — agreed to pay $5.7 million to resolve those allegations. The two companies were also subject to a court order requiring them to comply with COPPA, which the government says hasn’t happened.

In the complaint, the Justice Department and the FTC allege TikTok has knowingly allowed children to create accounts and retained their personal information without notifying their parents. This practice extends to accounts created in “Kids Mode,” a version of TikTok for children under 13. The feature allows users to view videos but bars them from uploading content.

The two agencies allege the information collected included activities on the app and other identifiers used to build user profiles. They also accuse TikTok of sharing the data with other companies – such as Meta’s Facebook and an analytics company called AppsFlyer – to persuade “Kids Mode” users to be on the platform more, a practice TikTok called “re-targeting less active users.”

The complaint says TikTok also allowed children to create accounts without having to provide their age, or obtain parental approval, by using credentials from third-party services. It classified these as “age unknown” accounts, which the agencies say have grown into millions.

After parents discovered some of their children’s accounts and asked for them to be deleted, federal officials said TikTok asked them to go through a convoluted process to deactivate them and frequently did not honor their requests.

Overall, the government said TikTok employed deficient policies that were unable to prevent children’s accounts from proliferating on its app and suggested the company was not taking the issue seriously. In at least some periods since 2019, the complaint said TikTok’s human moderators spent an average of five to seven seconds reviewing accounts flagged as potentially belonging to a child. It also said TikTok and ByteDance have technology they can use to identify and remove children’s accounts, but do not use them for that reason.

The alleged violations have resulted in millions of children under 13 using the regular TikTok app, allowing them to interact with adults and access adult content, the complaint said.

In March, a person with the matter had told the AP the FTC’s investigation was also looking into whether TikTok violated a portion of federal law that prohibits “unfair and deceptive” business practices by denying that individuals in China had access to U.S. user data.

Those allegations were not included in the complaint, which is asking the court to fine the companies and enter a preliminary injunction to prevent future violations.

Other social media companies have also come under fire for how they’ve handled children’s data.

In 2019, Google and YouTube agreed to pay a $170 million fine to settle allegations that the popular video site had illegally collected personal information on children without their parents’ consent.

And last fall, dozens of U.S. states sued Meta Platforms Inc., which owns Facebook and Instagram, for harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. A lawsuit filed by 33 states claims that Meta routinely collects data on children under 13 without their parents’ consent, in violation of COPPA. Nine attorneys general are also filing lawsuits in their respective states, bringing the total number of states taking action to 41 plus Washington, D.C.

This story was originally published by the Associated Press.

The Echeverri-Reglero family is officially a family of four. Camilo and Evaluna announced on social media on Thursday (Aug. 1) the arrival of their second daughter, Amaranto, who joins her 2-year-old sister Índigo.

“Amaranto. All the frogs came out to sing your welcome. Girl of golden velvet. Dad caught you and you painted his hands forever. Sovereign of midnight. Welcome,” reads a shared post on the couple’s Instagram accounts, along with a carousel of photos that starts with a tender image of the four resting on a bed, Amaranto on Evaluna, Índigo on Camilo.

There’s also a photo of a white sheet with a pair of hands imprinted on it in red, something that the poem in the caption refers to.

It is not specified where and when Amaranto was born. Camilo’s publicist told Billboard Español that no further information will be provided at this time.

Camilo and Evaluna married in February 2020 after five years together, and became parents in April 2022. Índigo was born months after they announced the pregnancy in the music video of a song named after their daughter.

Earlier this year, in February, they announced that they were expecting baby No. 2 with a beautiful poem by Camilo dedicated to his wife, who wrote in the description: “Officially the Echeverri-Reglero are FOUR.”

“Evaluna, fertile, a mother never ready, a walker discovered in the journey, a new daughter of calmness and killer of haste,” narrated the Colombian singer-songwriter in a video. “Owner of all Sundays, a caller of downpours and heavy rains, a tester of bathtubs and a volcanic diver. A baker by accident, excellent for intentional lack of trade. A springtime crossed. Violator of calendars, anticipator of Christmases, and mother of Amaranto and Indigo.”

Check out Camilo and Evaluna’s new baby announcement below:

Damon Dash’s one-third stake in Jay-Z’s Roc-A-Fella Records is going up for auction later this month — but a source tells Billboard that the shares might come with some key limitations.

According to federal court filings this week, the United States Marshals Service will auction off Dash’s 33.3% interest in the storied record company to satisfy an $823,000 judgment against him in a lawsuit filed by movie producer Josh Webber over a failed film partnership.

The auction, set for Aug 29 at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, will have a minimum bid of $1.2 million, and prospective bidders will be required to post a $240,000 deposit for the right to take part in the proceedings.

The sale will be for Dash’s stake in Roc-A-Fella Inc., an entity whose primary assets are the rights to Jay-Z’s iconic debut album Reasonable Doubt. According to an April article by Rolling Stone, the rest of the catalog of music released by Roc-A-Fella, which dissolved as an operational label in 2013, is owned by other entities and isn’t involved.

The owners of the other two-thirds of Roc-A-Fella — label cofounders Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Kareem “Biggs” Burke — have already attempted to stop the auction, including making changes to the company’s bylaws and intervening in the lawsuit. But a federal judge rejected such opposition in February.

The chance to own a valuable piece of rap IP will surely draw bidders, but a source with knowledge of the situation tells Billboard that there are important limitations to what is being auctioned off — namely, that they are buying a stake in a company with other members.

“Whomever buys Dame’s stake in Roc-A-Fella will be a minority owner without authority over any decision-making,” the source tells Billboard. “They won’t have the ability to sell the copyright or borrow against the master as all decisions require majority vote.”

The source also cautioned that the clock was ticking on Roc-A-Fella’s rights to Reasonable Doubt: “There’s also an expiration date on the master ownership for the company, which means revenue and the only asset doesn’t have many years left.”

The auction will be coordinated by Webber’s attorney, Chris Brown. He did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.

Webber won his judgment back in 2022 after suing Dash for copyright infringement and defamation over their failed partnership on producing a film called Dear Frank. But Dash has yet to hand over the money, hence the court-ordered auction.

The filmmaker isn’t the only one seeking the money from Dash’s Roc-A-Fella stake. The New York City Department of Social Services (NYCDSS) will actually have first dibs, according to court documents, since Dash owes a total of $145,096 in unpaid child support to a woman named Rachel Roy for his two daughters and to a woman named Cindy Morales for his son.

Brown is also seeking to collect another $155,000 that Dash owes to him and another client, photographer Monique Bunn, from separate legal actions. But they’ve agreed that NYCDSS and Webber deserve to recoup their debts from Dash first.

If any money from the auction is left over, it will go to Dash himself. His attorney did not return a request for comment on Thursday.

Back in 2021, attorneys for Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella sued Dash after news broke that he was planning to auction off a stake in Reasonable Doubt as a non-fungible token (NFT). They argued that the company, not Dash himself, owned the rights to the album: “The bottom line is simple: Dash can’t sell what he doesn’t own.” A year later, Dash signed a settlement in which he agreed that he had no right to sell any part of Jay-Z’s album — as an NFT or otherwise.

Last year, attorneys for Jay-Z, Biggs and Roc-A-Fella mounted a concerted effort to stop the court-ordered sale of Dash’s stake in the company. After jumping into Webber’s lawsuit, they told a federal judge that the auction would violate company bylaws, which they had amended in 2021 to prohibit such a sale.

But in February, the judge overseeing the case said the updated Roc-A-Fella bylaws had been enacted without Dash’s input and were unenforceable. Instead, he offered an alternative route for Jay-Z and Biggs that would still “readily address their concern” with the sale: “They can participate in the auction and place the winning bid.”

Jhené Aiko is making her return to Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Wednesday night (July 31), two weeks after ending the first leg of her tour in Atlanta and more than four years since the COVID-prompted cancellation of her breakout arena tour in support of her critically acclaimed album Chilombo.

Released on March 6, 2020, just weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Grammy-nominated platinum album is finally being performed for Aiko’s growing female fanbase on her Magic Hour Tour, which kicked off last month at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The “Sativa” singer, 36, is joined on the tour by supporting acts Coi Leray, Tink, Umi and Kiana Ledé.

Magic Hour’s live production showcases the music of Chilombo, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart when it was released in 2020, and tells the story of Aiko’s musical journey and spiritual growth, explains agent Caroline Yim at WME, told through an astral array of visual elements and video production, styled to match Aiko’s own signature psychedelia.

“Jhene’s process has never been ‘drop an album, do a tour,’” explained Yim, who noted that Aiko maintained a close connection with her fanbase during the pandemic, adding, “People are yearning for the music, and the beauty of not rushing a tour was that the music she did put out got to live and breathe over several years.”

Yim added, “Magic Hour is Jhene’s life story. It’s the things that she has gone through, the things that she has felt and a message to others to feel good about yourself and love yourself. That’s why it’s so pure and authentic; it’s not just dealing with heartbreak and those type of relationships, but also family dynamics and friendships and loss and grief. And that resonates with her fans in a very intimate and emotional way.”

Aiko’s life certainly has changed since the release of Chilombo — in November, Aiko gave birth to her son Noah Hasani with rapper Big Sean. A longtime advocate for restorative healing, Aiko launched her own wellness company The ARK in 2022, following up on her success experimenting with crystal bowls as both a musical source and an energy center. Every track on Chilombo includes the use of quartz crystal sound bowls, which she has performed with for nearly two decades.

Aiko’s ARK and ALLEL brands have grown to now include jewelry, her Jhenetics makeup line and audio companions for meditation and sleep. Aiko’s entrepreneurial efforts have pushed her team to prioritize high-impact performances since the pandemic ended, booking high-profile performances at Coachella for both 2022 and 2024, as well as Las Vegas’ Lovers and Friends festival in 2023 and Day N Vegas in 2022.

“The timing really worked with doing a few shows at the end of last year to set up for everything that was going to go on in 2024,” explained Yim, adding, “It’s become this community of women and girls coming out to grow together and sing their hearts out.”