Brazil fines TikTok $30m for child data privacy violations

Brazil’s data protection authority has fined TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, nearly $30m for the alleged mishandling of children and teenagers’ personal data, in the nation’s latest move against social media companies.

The regulatory body said in its ruling that TikTok had breached data privacy laws across both logged-in accounts and guest browsing sessions by collecting and processing young users’ personal information without a valid legal basis or adequate safeguards.

The regulator estimated that TikTok may have processed the data of at least 8 million children, highlighting what they said were systemic deficiencies within the platform’s age-verification mechanism.

The company can still appeal the decision in the next 10 days, according to the regulator.

The ruling also includes an order for TikTok to erase all data amassed illegally.

Brazil’s regulatory authority also mandated the company to formulate an improved comprehensive youth-protection framework, stressing that TikTok’s “logged-out feed”, which allows users to browse content without creating an account, enables widespread use ‌of the ⁠platform by minors while bypassing age-verification checks.

According to the regulator, the feature is available in Brazil but not in the United States or Europe, where access is solely restricted to registered users.

Earlier this month, the regulator ordered the social media platform Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature across the country, accusing the platform of failing to protect children and teenagers. The move came after a 13-year-old girl died by suicide following a livestream in which authorities say she was encouraged to harm herself.