TECH: UK FINES TikTok OVER SAFETY DATA REPORTING
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Agency Report
The British telecoms watchdog Ofcom announced on Wednesday that TikTok, a platform for sharing videos, has been fined £1.9 million ($2.4 million) for neglecting to provide safety data on time.
The Chinese company ByteDance owns the platform, which was criticized by Ofcom for disseminating false material last year and failing to take prompt action to rectify it.
“Ofcom has today fined TikTok £1.875 million for failing to accurately respond to a formal request for information about its parental controls safety feature,” the regulator said in a statement.
In an AFP statement, TikTok acknowledged that it had given Ofcom false information about the usage of a parental controls tool, which understated the number of users “considerably.”
“While we subsequently provided the correct information, we fell short of our obligations by not reporting the error sooner, and apologise for any disruption this caused.
“We are committed to fully cooperating with all of Ofcom’s requests and have implemented improvements to our internal processes,” a TikTok spokesperson said, adding that Ofcom had recognised the oversight was not deliberate.
Noting the breach was a first for the platform, bringing a fine 25 percent below its maximum, Ofcom said “significant weight was also given to the fact that, notwithstanding its failings, TikTok proactively self-reported the error to us and has since taken steps to improve its internal processes.”
However, the agency claimed that, as a result of the failure, it was compelled to omit information about TikTok’s parental controls from an upcoming transparency report.
Seven months after a deadline last year, Ofcom stated that it had only received incomplete, if accurate, information.
It further stated that, considering TikTok’s resources and awareness of its regulatory responsibilities, it thought the fine was reasonable for a business of its size.
The action was taken one week after TikTok’s attempt to circumvent new EU digital regulations aimed at limiting the influence of large technology companies was denied by a court.
AFP
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