European regulators fined Chinese app TikTok $368 million on Friday for failing to protect the privacy of children on the platform. This would be the first time the Chinese app has been sanctioned over Europe’s strict data privacy rules.
The Irish Data Protection Commission, the main privacy regulator for big tech companies, said it was fining TikTok 345 million euros – which is about $368 million – for violations that occurred in the second semester 2020, according to an Associated Press report.
Girls film a racy TikTok video (PHILIPPE LOPEZ /Getty)
TikTok was accused of setting up its system so that whenever teenage users signed up for the Chinese app, their profiles were public by default, allowing anyone to view and comment on their videos.
These default settings also pose a risk to children under 13 who have created accounts on the platform, even if they are not authorized to do so.
Additionally, TikTok’s “family pairing” feature – intended for parents to manage their children’s account settings – was not strict enough, the European investigation found.
TikTok said it disagreed with the decision, “particularly on the level of the fine imposed.”
“Most of the criticism of the decision is no longer relevant due to the measures we introduced in early 2021, several months before the investigation began,” said Elaine Fox, chief privacy officer. for Europe at TikTok.
Regulators are still conducting a second investigation into whether TikTok complied with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation when it transferred users’ personal information to China, the Associated Press reported.
As Breitbart News has previously reported, TikTok, owned by a hostile foreign country, has proven to be quite problematic.
The app’s parent company, ByteDance, has been caught spying on American and British journalists on several occasions. TikTok has also been shown to be a danger to children and teenagers, a threat to national security and its interference in US elections.
Last month, a poll found that nearly half of American adults support banning TikTok.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangeloand on Instagram.
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