July 24, (THEWILL) – British telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has fined TikTok, a video-sharing platform, £1.9 million for failing to provide safety data promptly.
This announcement comes a week after TikTok lost an appeal to avoid new EU digital rules, aimed at curbing the power of big tech companies following a court rejection of its challenge.
Ofcom had criticised TikTok, owned by the Chinese group, ByteDance, for providing inaccurate information last year and for not promptly addressing the issue.
TikTok had acknowledged in a statement that it had given Ofcom inaccurate data regarding the usage of a parental controls tool, significantly underestimating the number of users.
“While we subsequently provided the correct information, we fell short of our obligations by not reporting the error sooner and apologising for any disruption this caused. We are committed to fully cooperating with all 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 that this was the first breach for the platform, resulting in a fine 25 percent below the maximum, Ofcom stated, “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 regulator said the failure had forced it to remove details about the effectiveness of TikTok’s parental controls from an upcoming transparency report.
Ofcom said it received only partial but accurate data seven months after the deadline last year; adding that it believed the penalty was appropriate for a company of TikTok’s size, considering its resources and awareness of regulatory obligations.
