British communications regulator Ofcom has fined Chinese-owned video sharing platform TikTok for failing to adequately respond to their requests for information about the app’s parental safety features.
Ofcom says the fine — which nears £1.9 million (around U.S. $2.44 million) — comes after it requested information from TikTok about its compliance with the U.K.’s Online Safety Act, which aims to protect children from harmful online content.
According to Ofcom, it requested information from TikTok about its Family Pairing feature, including how it screens potentially-harmful content to prevent it from being seeing by teenagers who use the platform.
TikTok provided some data to regulators in September of last year, but followed up on the disclosure with a revelation that the information was not entirely accurate. The platform vowed to launch an internal investigation into the matter; Ofcom launched a parallel investigation.
Ofcom said its own investigation revealed numerous issues with how TikTok collected, analyzed and reported safety data. The company had insufficient checks to ensure the data was accurate, Ofcom said.
TikTok followed up by providing a limited amount of accurate information earlier this year, Ofcom said, but the fulfillment was more than seven months after the regulator’s original deadline.
“Ofcom’s job is to scrutinize platforms’ safety features, and gathering information is a critical part of holding tech firms to account,” Suzanne cater, the Enforcement Director at Ofcom, said in a statement. “When we demand data, it must be accurate and submitted on time. We won’t hesitate to take enforcement action if any company fails to do this.”
