TikTok Hit With $10.9 Million Fine in Italy for Failing to Protect Minors

The TikTok logo is displayed outside TikTok social media app company offices in Culver City, Calif., on March 16, 2023. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

The Italian antitrust regulator has fined TikTok roughly $10.94 million for failing to protect children and vulnerable people from harmful content on the popular video-sharing application.

In a statement published on Thursday, the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) said the firm has not implemented “appropriate mechanisms to monitor content published on the platform, particularly those that may threaten the safety of minors and vulnerable individuals.”

The Italian regulator launched an investigation into TikTok last March, saying that numerous videos on its platform showed young people adopting self-harming behavior, particularly content related to a trend called “French scar.” The TikTok challenge, which became viral in Italy last year, involves the act of continuously and violently squeezing the skin of one’s cheeks until causes lasting bruises on the cheekbones.

The authority said on Thursday its probe had verified TikTok’s responsibility in spreading content “likely to threaten the psycho-physical safety” of users, including videos related to the “French Scar” challenge.

TikTok said it disagrees with the Italian regulator’s decision. “There were only on average 100 daily searches in Italy for so-called ‘French Scar’ content before the AGCM announced its investigation last year,” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

TikTok was ordered in February to remove content related to the viral challenge from its application, according to a ruling issued by a separate top watchdog in Italy, the Communications Guarantee Authority.

The competition authority said Thursday that “potentially dangerous content” was circulated through TikTok’s profiling algorithms, which could automatically select videos to match users’ interests. Its purpose, the regulator added, was to increase the time people spend on the app and drive user engagement to boost advertising revenue

“TikTok has not taken adequate measures to prevent the spreading of such content, and has not fully complied with the guidelines it has adopted, reassuring customers that the platform is a ’safe' space.”

The penalties were imposed on three divisions of ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, namely the Irish TikTok Technology Limited, the British TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited, and the Italian TikTok Italy Srl.

Growing Scrutiny in the West

The costly fine adds to TikTok’s woes in Europe. The European Commission opened multiple formal investigations last February into whether the Chinese-owned social media company breached the block’s new law, the Digital Services Act, which requires social media platforms, particularly the very large ones, to combat harmful content or disinformation. Non-compliance could lead to a fine of up to 6 percent of companies’ global turnover. The probe will look into issues including TikTok’s “addictive design“ and the potential failure to protect children.

In September 2023, the Irish data watchdog fined the video-sharing app roughly $368 million for failing to protect the privacy of underage users. The company also received a roughly $5.4 million fine in January 2023 from the French data regulator for privacy violations.

In the United States, policymakers, law enforcement officials, and pediatricians have also raised concerns over TikTok’s impact on children and teens.

Its ties to communist China amplified the concerns. Some security analysts have said that TikTok could be weaponized against U.S. citizens through predatory surveillance practices, censorship, and the promotion of state-backed propaganda. More than half of U.S. states have banned government-owned devices from using TikTok.

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would legally require TikTok to divest from its China-based owner, ByteDance, or face a ban on U.S. app stores and hosting services. The bill will now go to the Senate, and President Joe Biden has vowed to sign it into law if it passes the upper chamber.

The video-sharing app is hugely popular among Americans, with roughly 170 million users nationwide. In comparison, TikTok has an average of 125 million monthly active users in the EU.

Across the world, India already imposed a nationwide ban in 2020. New Delhi banned the use of TikTok and dozens of Chinese apps, such as the popular messaging app WeChat, following a deadly border clash between the two neighbors over a disputed Himalayan region. The Nepali government said last year that it was moved to ban TikTok.

Meanwhile, Canada quietly opened a national security review of TikTok last September, though it was not made public until early this month.

Andrew Thornebrooke contributed to this report.