On Friday, a European Union (EU) regulator fined China-owned video-making platform TikTok with a 345-million-euro fine over child data violations in the bloc’s latest salvo against the firm practices of tech titans.
The fine, which is equal to $369 million, is the culmination of a two-year probe by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC).
The Irish watchdog, which plays a significant part in policing the EU’s strict General Data Protection Regulations, provided TikTok three months “to get its processing into compliance” with its regulations.
In September 2021, the DPC started scrutinizing TikTok’s compliance with GDPR in link to platform settings and personal data processing for users aged under 18 years old.
It also scrutinized TikTok’s age verification efforts for persons under 13 and discovered no violation, but saw the platform did not properly consider the risks to younger people registering on the service.
The regulator emphasized in its ruling Friday how youngsters signing up had TikTok accounts set to public by default, meaning anyone could see or comment on their content.
It also criticized TikTok’s “family pairing” mode, which is created to connect parents’ accounts to those of their teenage children, but the DPC discovered the firm did not verify parent or guardian status.
TikTok is incredibly widespread among young people with 150 million users in the United States and 134 million in the EU.
TikTok said, in response to the fine, it “respectfully disagrees” with the ruling and was “evaluating” how to proceed.
A spokesperson for TikTok told AFP that the criticisms of DPC are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago and that we made changes well before the probe even started, such as placing all under 16 accounts to private by default.
The platform urges that it closely monitor the age of its users and takes steps when required.
Friday’s fine comes after the EU last week revealed a list of tech giants — including Apple, Facebook owner Meta, and ByteDance — that will encounter tough new curbs on how they do business.
