Italy’s competition authority fined TikTok €10m (almost $11 million) on Thursday, saying the very popular video app did not adequately protect minors.
“The company did not put in place the right tools to track content posted on the platform, especially those that could be harmful to minors and vulnerable people,” the AGCM watchdog said in a statement.
“Additionally, this content is regularly shown to users due to their algorithmic profiling, leading to increased use of the social network.”
The fine was imposed on three units of China’s Bytedance group, specifically Ireland’s TikTok Technology, TikTok Information Technologies UK, and TikTok Italy.
The watchdog said TikTok did not fully follow the guidelines it had promoted to assure users that the app was a “safe” space.
“In fact, the guidelines are applied without adequately considering the specific vulnerability of teenagers, who have unique cognitive mechanisms leading to difficulties in distinguishing reality from fiction and a tendency to mimic group behavior,” it said.
It also said that “potentially dangerous” content is promoted through TikTok’s recommendation system.
It brought attention to the “French scar challenge,” where children injure themselves to create bruising, a trend explained by numerous tutorials on TikTok that have caused concern in the education and health sectors.
The short-video app has gained immense popularity globally, but its ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance – and alleged ties to Beijing’s ruling Communist Party – has raised worry in Western capitals.
On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would require TikTok to sell off from its parent company or face a nationwide ban.
When the competition watchdog began investigating TikTok for dangerous content a year ago, the company claimed it took “extra care to protect teenagers.”
Meanwhile, the EU, in February 2024, announced a formal investigation into TikTok over alleged breaches of its obligations to protect minors online under a landmark new law on policing digital content. TikTok on the matter of protecting minors online under a significant new law.
In April 2023, Britain’s data regulator stated that it fined TikTok £12.7 million ($15.9 million) for allowing up to 1.4 million children under 13 to use its social media platform in violation of its own rules. fined In the same year's September, the European Union regulator fined a Chinese-owned social media platform, TikTok, €345m for
breaches involving children's data breaches of child data.
AFP
