UK fines TikTok over child safety data reporting

LONDON — British telecommunications regulator Ofcom said on Wednesday it had handed video sharing platform TikTok a 1.9 million pound ($2.4 million) fine for failing to timely make available safety data.

Ofcom criticised the platform, which is owned by Chinese group ByteDance, saying it communicated inaccurate information last year and failed swiftly to address that.

“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 a statement to AFP, TikTok recognised it had furnished Ofcom with inaccurate data on the use of a parental controls tool that underestimated “considerably” the number of people using the tool.

“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.”

But the regulator said the failing had forced it to remove details on the effectiveness of TikTok’s parental controls in an upcoming transparency report.

Ofcom said it received only partial, if accurate, information data seven months after a deadline last year.

It added it believed that the penalty was appropriate for a company of TikTok’s size, given its resources and awareness of regulatory obligations.

The move comes a week after TikTok lost an appeal to escape new EU digital rules that seek to rein in the power of big tech after a court rejected its challenge.