Italy’s Regulatory Body Imposes $11 Million Fine on TikTok for Failing to Screen Harmful Content
Bollywoodfever, March 14: Italy’s antitrust authority, AGCM, announced on Thursday that it has imposed fines totaling 10 million euros ($10.94 million) on three TikTok entities for failing to properly monitor its platform for content that could endanger young or vulnerable users.
Owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance, TikTok, along with other social media giants like Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta Platforms, faces increasing scrutiny worldwide to safeguard minors.
AGCM criticized TikTok for not taking sufficient steps to halt the dissemination of harmful content and for not adhering to its own safety protocols, thus failing to ensure the platform remains a ‘safe’ environment. The regulator specifically highlighted concerns over certain TikTok challenges, including the “French scar” challenge, which involves pinching the cheeks hard enough to cause a noticeable bruise, posing a risk to minors and susceptible individuals.
This criticism follows a recent action by Italy’s communications watchdog, AGCOM, which had mandated TikTok to take down such videos. According to AGCM, the harmful content is not only directly uploaded by users but also proliferated via TikTok’s profiling algorithms, leading to increased engagement at the risk of inappropriate influence on users. TikTok had not responded to these allegations at the time of the announcement.
In a related development in the United States, where TikTok boasts approximately 170 million users, the platform is confronting potential prohibition unless ByteDance divests its ownership within a six-month timeframe, as stipulated by a draft bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday.
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