Italy fines TikTok 10 million euros for not protecting minors – 03/14/2024 – Tech

Italy announced a fine to the Chinese social network TikTok of 10 million euros (around R$54 million) for its lack of control over content that would leave children and teenagers without adequate protection.

“The company did not apply adequate mechanisms to monitor content published on the platform, in particular those that could threaten the safety of minors and vulnerable people,” said Italy’s Competition and Market Guarantee Authority (AGCM) in a statement. .

The agency added that “content is systematically suggested to users thanks to its profile evaluation algorithm, which encourages increasing use of the social network.”

The fine was applied to three units of the Chinese group Bytedance: TikTok Technology, from Ireland; TikYTok Information Technologies UK and TikTok Italy.

The AGCM stated that TikTok did not comply with the guidelines it announced to ensure the app was a safe space.

“The guidelines are applied without adequately taking into account the vulnerabilities of adolescents, characterized by particular cognitive mechanisms that give rise to, for example, the difficulty in differentiating reality from fiction and the tendency to imitate behavior in a group,” he added.