TikTok fined £1.8m over failure to provide accurate information to Ofcom

TikTok has been fined £1.875 million for failing to accurately respond to a formal request for information from Ofcom.

The communications and online safety regulator said it had requested information from the social media giant about the usage of TikTok’s parental controls to inform an Ofcom report around child online safety.

Ofcom said TikTok responded to the request in September last year, but then in December told Ofcom the data provided was not accurate.

In response, Ofcom said it launched an investigation which found a number of failings in TikTok’s data governance processes, including having insufficient checks in place to ensure accurate data was sent, and for being slow to alert Ofcom to the issue.

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

Ofcom said the delay meant it was forced to amend its report at a late stage.

The regulator said the incident has seen TikTok contravene its duties under the Communications Act to fully co-operate with a statutory request for information.

Suzanne Carter, Ofcom’s enforcement director, said: “Ofcom’s job is to scrutinise platforms’ safety features, and gathering information is a critical part of holding tech firms to account.

“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.”

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We inadvertently provided inaccurate information to Ofcom regarding the use of Family Pairing in the UK, which significantly undercounted the actual number of people using this pioneering parenting tool.

“While we subsequently provided the correct information, we fell short of our obligations by not reporting the error sooner, and apologise for any disruption this caused.

“We are committed to fully cooperating with all of Ofcom’s requests and have implemented improvements to our internal processes.”

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