TikTok fined by Ofcom for breaching information request on parental controls

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The UK’s broadcast and telecoms regulator Ofcom fined the social media platform TikTok £1.875 million (€2.23 million) for not providing accurate information about its parental controls, according to a Wednesday (24 July) press release.

The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, the UK communications regulator in charge of the telecom and broadcasting sectors, said that TikTok did not accurately respond to a formal request for information about its parental controls.

TikTok has recently faced repeated regulatory challenges, including scrutiny from the EU, mostly in connection to the Digital Services Act (DSA), and child protection. For example, in April, TikTok “voluntarily” suspended the rewards functions in TikTok Lite, days after the European Commission announced a second round of formal proceedings against its rewards programme.

The social media platform submitted incorrect data on 4 September last year, Ofcom’s press release said, and only informed the regulator about the mistake on 1 December. TikTok told Ofcom that “it was conducting an internal investigation to understand the root cause of its inaccuracies”.

This led to an investigation by Ofcom, revealing flaws in TikTok’s data processes and delays in correcting the error. The UK regulator also considered whether TikTok had fully cooperated in producing the child safety report, given the delay.

Ofcom’s fine reflects TikTok’s failure to comply with statutory information requests, but it was reduced by 25% as the platform accepted the regulator’s findings and settled the case.

A TikTok spokesperson confirmed the reporting error to Euractiv.

“We fell short of our obligations by not reporting the error sooner, and apologise for any disruption this caused”. The company has “implemented improvements” to its internal processes, the spokesperson said.

The investigation

The Ofcom investigation found that TikTok had several failures in its data governance, leading to inaccurate data submission and slow error reporting.

TikTok delayed informing Ofcom about the inaccuracies for more than three weeks, even though, the regulator says, the platform was aware that Ofcom needed the parental controls data for a transparency report.

The delay forced Ofcom to remove details from the report. TikTok later committed to providing accurate data but faced further delays. The platform eventually provided accurate data on 28 March this year, seven months after the original deadline.

Ofcom’s investigation concluded that TikTok did not fully cooperate with its information request, violating the Communications Act 2003, a UK law that regulates telecommunications, broadcasting, and internet services to ensure fair competition and protect consumers.

[Edited by Eliza Gkritsi/Zoran Radosavljevic]