Turning Point USA

The European Union has slapped TikTok with a $370 million fine for its mishandling of children’s privacy data, marking the largest penalty the social media platform has faced to date. 

The fine was issued by the Irish Data Protection Commission on behalf of the EU, citing TikTok’s mishandling of children’s privacy data and violations of Europe’s privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR details rules and regulations regarding data collection that companies must be in compliance with when operating in Europe.

TikTok’s violation of GDPR occurred when it automatically set the accounts of users aged 13 to 17 as public and viewable to anyone. In response to the fine, TikTok is not only required to pay a substantial amount but also mandated to implement the necessary data processing changes to comply with GDPR by the end of the year.

Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon emphasized that TikTok’s platform design was a key factor leading to the GDPR infringement, stating, “That is precisely at the hands of TikTok because of the way they designed the platform, and we say that infringed the data protection by design and by the default requirements of the GDPR.”

A spokesperson for TikTok expressed disagreement with the commission’s decision and the level of the fine. The spokesperson defended the platform, saying, “The criticisms are focused on features and settings that were in place three years ago, and that we made changes to well before the investigation even began, such as setting all under-16 accounts to private by default.”

In addition to the privacy data mishandling fine, TikTok is also under investigation by the EU for its alleged ties to the Chinese government. The EU is examining whether TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, unlawfully transfers user data to China. TikTok has been subject to these allegations for quite some time, including by the U.S. government. However, as of now, the EU has not provided a public update on the status of this investigation.