ALBAWABA - The China-based social media giant, has been hit with a staggering €345 million fine by the Irish Data Protection Commission for alleged violations of data privacy regulations dating back to the second half of 2020.
The majority of Europe's major tech corporations are headquartered in Dublin, and as TikTok's legal base within the EU is also in Dublin, the Irish regulatory body is considered the data protection authority for TikTok-related cases.
The Irish Data Protection Commission revealed that TikTok received this penalty due to its failure to protect children's data. The investigation exposed that the registration process, aimed at young users, resulted in default settings that made their accounts public, allowing everyone to view and comment on their videos.
Furthermore, the probe pointed out that these default settings posed risks even to children under the age of 13 who accessed the platform despite the prohibition.
Criticism was also directed at the "family pairing" feature, designed for parents to manage settings, which was found not to be robust enough. It allowed adults to enable direct messaging for 16 and 17-year-old users without their consent, an action considered an intrusion of privacy.
The commission concluded that these practices directed young users towards "privacy-intrusive" options when signing up and posting videos.
Elaine Fox, TikTok's European data protection officer, commented on the situation, stating, "As a result of measures we put in place early in 2021, several months before the inquiry started, many of the criticisms raised in the decision are not applicable anymore."
It's important to note that the Irish Data Protection Commission has faced criticism in the past for not expediting investigations involving major tech companies since the introduction of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018.
In April, TikTok received a £12.7 million (approximately €14.7 million) fine from the UK's data watchdog for unlawfully processing children's data, marking one of the largest fines of its kind.
TikTok, a China-based social media platform, boasts more than 150 million users in Europe, and its parent company, ByteDance, reported a revenue of $80 billion in 2022.
