TikTok received a record fine of 345 million euros

TikTok has been fined €345 million for violating privacy laws related to the processing of children's personal data in the European Union.

The Chinese short video platform, which has rapidly gained popularity among teenagers around the world over the years, breached several EU privacy rules between July 31, 2020 and December 31, 2020, Ireland's Data Protection Commission said in a statement. This is the first time that ByteDance's TikTok has been warned in this way by the DPC (Irish Data Protection Commission), which is the main regulator in the EU for many leading technology companies.

A TikTok spokesperson said they disagreed with the decision, particularly the amount of the fine, and that most of the criticism was no longer relevant due to the measures they put in place before the September 2021 investigation began.

The DPC said that among TikTok's 2020 breaches, the accounts of users under the age of 16 defaulted to "public" and that TikTok also failed to verify that the user was actually the parent or guardian of the minor user when connected through the feature "family bonding". In November 2020, TikTok added stricter controls for family bonding and changed the default setting for all registered users under 16 to “private” in January 2021.

They said they plan to make further updates to their privacy protocols to make the distinction between public and private accounts clearer. An update is planned for next month. The DPC gave TikTok three months to adjust its data processing policies, prioritizing those where serious violations were detected.

The Irish commission has opened another investigation against TikTok, in which it is investigating whether the transfer of data to China is controversial or inconsistent with European legislation. Under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), introduced in 2018, the main regulator can fine any company up to 4 % of the company's global revenue.

The DPC has also hit other tech giants with big fines, including a total of €2.5 billion for Meta (formerly Facebook).