Brazil fines TikTok $30million over child data management

Brazil's National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) has levied a substantial fine of approximately $30 million on TikTok for mishandling the data of children and adolescents. This penalty, amounting to 153.7 million reais, mandates ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to erase the illegally obtained data. Additionally, TikTok has pledged to implement a compliance plan to bolster the protection of minors.

The platform must adopt stricter privacy settings for accounts belonging to users under 16, bolster parental supervision mechanisms, and introduce more robust content filters. TikTok's response to these allegations remains pending. This fine follows a recent order from ANPD to Discord, a popular streaming service, to halt live broadcasts and video calls following allegations that a teenage girl was encouraged to commit suicide during a live stream.

ANPD has yet to review Discord's appeal against the suspension. Brazil has been increasingly stringent in its regulation of social media platforms. A law passed recently requires platforms to link accounts of users under the age of 16 to their parents' accounts and verify user ages. In 2024, social media giant X faced a 40-day ban in Brazil due to the platform's failure to comply with court orders to remove disinformation-spreading accounts.