The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in the United Kingdom fined TikTok, a Chinese-owned video-sharing app, £12.7 million for multiple breaches of data protection law.
According to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), investigations revealed that TikTok breached the data of children under the age of 13.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, John Edward, the Information Commissioner, stated that TikTok granted approximately 1 million under-13 children access to its platform and used their personal data.
He accused TikTok of not doing enough to monitor who was using their platform and said the fine reflects the serious consequences of their failures.
He said TikTok did not abide by laws that ensure the safety of children.
He said “There are laws in place to make sure our children are as safe in the digital world as they are in the physical world. TikTok did not abide by those laws.
“As a consequence, an estimated 1 million under-13s were inappropriately granted access to the platform, with TikTok collecting and using their personal data. That means that their data may have been used to track them and profile them, potentially delivering harmful, inappropriate content at their very next scroll.
“TikTok should have known better. “TikTok should have done better. Our £12.7m fine reflects the serious impact their failures may have had. They did not do enough to check who was using their platform or take sufficient action to remove the underage children that were using their platform.” The commissioner said.
TikTok’s reaction
Though TikTok disagreed with the ICO’s decision, it was pleased that the fine announced was half the amount proposed last year.
According to one of its spokespersons, they will continue to review the decision and are considering the next steps.
“TikTok is a platform for users aged 13 and over. We invest heavily to help keep under-13s off the platform and our 40,000-strong safety team works around the clock to help keep the platform safe for our community.
“While we disagree with the ICO’s decision, which relates to May 2018 to July 2020, we are pleased that the fine announced today has been reduced to under half the amount proposed last year. We will continue to review the decision and are considering the next steps.” The statement reads.
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