Venezuela’s highest court on Monday fined TikTok $10 million in connection with viral challenges that authorities say led to the death of three teenagers from chemical intoxication.
Supreme Court judge Tania D’Amelio said the popular video-sharing app had failed to implement “necessary and adequate measures” to prevent the spread of content encouraging the challenges.
TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, was ordered to open an office in the South American country and given eight days to pay the fine or face “appropriate” measures.
Venezuela will use the money “to create a TikTok victims fund, whose purpose is to compensate users for the psychological, emotional and physical damage they suffer, especially if these users are children and teenagers,” D’Amelio said.
The company told the court that it “understood the seriousness of the matter.”
Three teenagers have died and 200 people have been drugged in schools across the country after consuming chemical substances as part of social media “challenges”, according to Venezuelan authorities.
TikTok’s huge global success is partly built on the success of its challenges – a call that invites users to create videos featuring dances, jokes or games that sometimes go viral.
The app has been accused of putting users in danger by spreading dangerous challenge videos.
TikTok’s official policy bans videos promoting self-harm and suicide.
In November, President Nicolás Maduro threatened to take “serious measures” against TikTok if it did not remove content related to “criminal challenges”.
Parliament is considering laws regulating the social network, which Maduro said after his disputed re-election in July was being used to promote “hate,” “fascism” and “division.” Is.
He has accused Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of social media platform X, of orchestrating “attacks against Venezuela.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)