British telecoms regulator Ofcom said on Wednesday it had fined video sharing platform TikTok 1.9 million pounds ($2.4 million) for failing to provide security data in a timely manner.
Ofcom criticised the platform, owned by Chinese group Bytedance, saying it provided incorrect information last year and failed to remedy it quickly.
“Ofcom has today fined TikTok £1.875 million for failing to properly respond to a formal request for information about its parental control safety feature,” the regulator said in a statement.
In a statement to AFP, TikTok admitted it had given Ofcom inaccurate data about the use of the parental control tool, “significantly” underestimating the number of people using the tool.
“Although we subsequently provided the correct information, we failed to fulfil our obligations by not reporting the error sooner, and we apologise for any disruption this may have caused.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “We are committed to cooperating fully with all Ofcom requests and have implemented improvements to our internal processes.” He further said that Ofcom has accepted that this lapse was not intentional.
Describing the breach as a first for the platform, which imposed a penalty 25 per cent lower than the maximum fine, Ofcom said “significant importance was also attached to the fact that, despite its failings, TikTok proactively reported the error to us and has since taken steps to improve its internal processes.”
But the regulator said this failure had forced it to remove details about 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 the deadline last year.
He said he believed the fine was fair for a company of TikTok’s size, given its substantial resources and awareness of regulatory obligations.
The move comes a week after TikTok lost an appeal to avoid new EU digital rules that seek to curb the power of big tech companies, as a court dismissed its challenge.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
