Asia Tech Wire (Aug 5) -- TikTok is facing a lawsuit in the U.S. for allegedly illegal collection of children's data in violation of online privacy laws.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in a California district court, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that the Tiktok app allowed millions of children under the age of 13 to create accounts without their parents' knowledge or consent.

The department said this means Tiktok is still allowing inappropriate behavior to occur even after it settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over children's privacy in 2019.

TikTok has previously paid a $5.7 million fine over the 2019 charges, though FTC Chair Lina Khan said in her latest statement that TikTok willfully and repeatedly violated children's privacy, threatening the safety of millions of children.

The U.S. is seeking fines of up to $51,744 per day for each violation, which could total hundreds of millions of dollars if the U.S. government prevails in its latest lawsuit.

TikTok responded by disagreeing with the U.S. government's claims, saying many of them were inaccurate or that it had already provided solutions for them.

And the company said it was proud of its efforts to protect children, and pledged to continue to update and improve the platform.