The British telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, announced on Wednesday that it has imposed a £1.9 million ($2.4 million) fine on TikTok, the video sharing platform owned by Chinese group ByteDance, for not promptly providing safety data. Ofcom criticized TikTok for providing inaccurate information last year and for not addressing the issue quickly.
In a statement, Ofcom said, "Today, we have fined TikTok £1.875 million for not accurately responding to a formal request for information about its parental controls safety feature." TikTok acknowledged in a statement to AFP that it had provided Ofcom with inaccurate data regarding the use of a parental controls tool, which significantly underestimated the number of users.
A TikTok spokesperson said, "While we subsequently provided the correct information, we failed to report the error sooner and apologize for any disruption caused. We are committed to cooperating fully with Ofcom's requests and have implemented improvements to our internal processes." Ofcom noted that TikTok proactively self-reported the error and has since taken steps to improve its internal processes, which was considered in the penalty decision.
However, Ofcom stated that the inaccuracies forced it to omit details about the effectiveness of TikTok's parental controls from an upcoming transparency report. The regulator received only partial, albeit accurate, information seven months after the deadline. Ofcom believes the penalty is appropriate given TikTok's size and awareness of regulatory obligations.
This development comes a week after TikTok's failed appeal against new EU digital rules aimed at curbing the power of big tech, following a court's rejection of its challenge.
