TikTok, the video-sharing social media app that has faced worldwide criticism for its ties to China, has been fined €345 million ($368 million) in the European Union over alleged shortcomings in the way it handles with children’s personal data.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission ruled that TikTok failed to protect minors from unnecessary data processing and did not act in a transparent manner, according to a decision made public on Friday.
The agency, which oversees the company because its EU base is in Dublin, has given TikTok a three-month ultimatum to bring its data processing into compliance with the strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The investigation covered a five-month period from July 2020 to December 31, 2020 and found that TikTok’s data processing during that period breached GDPR rules relating to children between the ages of 13 and 17.
“Social media companies have a responsibility to avoid unfairly presenting choices to users, especially children – especially if that presentation could lead people to make decisions that violate their privacy interests,” said Anu Talus, head of the European Council for Data protection. , a panel of national bodies, which examines the findings of local watchdogs in pan-EU cases.
The fine follows intense scrutiny of child protection practices at the company, best known for viral dance challenges and owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd. TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users worldwide, continues to face possible bans and was added earlier this month to a list of tech companies that have six months to comply with strict new rules for the EU’s digital markets .
“We respectfully disagree with the decision, especially the amount of the fine imposed,” TikTok said in a statement. It said the Irish authority’s “criticism is focused on features and settings that existed three years ago, and we made changes even before the investigation began, such as setting all accounts under 16 to private by default.”
In addition to EU oversight, U.S. lawmakers have introduced several bills that could block the app. In the EU and US, the company has drawn up plans to shield data on local servers and use domestic partners to oversee data access controls.
The Irish watchdog is the regulator for dozens of major technology companies. It opened two investigations into TikTok in 2021, saying it was concerned that young users’ data was not adequately protected and that it wanted to investigate the risks of some TikTok user data being accessed by “maintenance and AI engineers in China” .
Last year, it fined Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram €405 million for inappropriately handling children’s personal data.