KUALA LUMPUR – Italy has fined TikTok 10 million euros (RM51.27 million) for failing to sufficiently protect minors as “potentially dangerous” content is pushed through its recommendation system.
The AGCM competition watchdog said the fine is imposed on Ireland-based TikTok Technology, TikTok Information Technologies UK and TikTok Italy.
“The company has failed to implement appropriate mechanisms to monitor content published on the platform, particularly those that may threaten the safety of minors and vulnerable individuals.
“Moreover, this content is systematically re-proposed to users as a result of their algorithmic profiling, stimulating an ever-increasing use of the social network.
“In fact, the guidelines are applied without adequately accounting for the specific vulnerability of adolescents, characterised by peculiar cognitive mechanisms from which derive, for instance, the difficulty in distinguishing reality from fiction and the tendency to emulate group behaviour,” the watchdog said in a statement today.
Italy also used the “French scar challenge” as an example of dangerous content where children pinch their cheeks violently to create bruising.
There have been a slew of TikTok video tutorials, which has raised concerns among education and health experts.
TikTok has been under the spotlight in the US due to its ownership by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, fuelling allegations of leaking user data to China’s Communist Party – something that has been repeatedly denied by the company.
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives voted in a bill that would force TikTok to divest from ByteDance or face a ban. – March 14, 2024