TikTok has been fined a record €345 million (296 million pounds) by Ireland for violating data privacy. This penalty was imposed in response to complaints, particularly regarding age verification and privacy settings, regarding how TikTok processed children’s data in 2020.

A representative of the social media platform stated that they respect the fine but strongly disagree with its level. They also emphasized that the criticisms were related to the platform’s past features and settings and that they had made changes in these areas before investigations even began. For instance, they had set all accounts for users under the age of 16 to private by default.

This fine was issued by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law. GDPR sets the rules that companies must follow in their data processing procedures.

The DPC found that TikTok was not transparent enough about privacy settings for children and did not provide answers about how data was being processed. Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon stated that it was problematic for individuals between the ages of 13 and 17 to have public accounts as the default setting, which was a violation of GDPR rules. TikTok was given three months to make its data processing procedures fully GDPR compliant.

Professor Sonia Livingstone, who studies children’s digital rights and experiences, welcomed the DPC’s decision, emphasizing the need for children to understand how their data is processed in the digital world and that this should be done with respect for their rights.

It’s worth noting that an investigation is ongoing regarding whether TikTok unlawfully transfers data from the EU to China. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

Finally, it’s important to mention that, considering the penalty in comparison to other similar cases, the fine TikTok received is larger than Meta’s (owner of Facebook) €1.2 billion (1 billion pounds) fine for misleading data sharing allegations between Europe and the United States. Additionally, TikTok received a larger penalty than the £12.7 million fine it received in the UK in 2020 for allowing under-13s to use the platform. After this penalty, TikTok has taken a series of measures to make its platform more child-friendly, such as making accounts for users aged 13 to 15 private by default. They also plan to make a change to set accounts for 16 and 17-year-olds as private by default.