Ireland's DPC fines TikTok €345M after finding the company in breach of GDPR in relation to its handling of children's data and gives three months to comply
most stuff gets fixed with a tap on the shoulder, but the unlawfulness still needs addressing. [image] Caroline Greer / @carolinegreer : The 🇮🇪 DPC decision published today in relation to TikTok focuses on settings in place in 2020. Most criticisms are no longer relevant as we made changes before the investigation even began, eg setting all <16 accounts to private by default. More here: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/ ... @evan_greer : This seems fine/good. I oppose misguided calls to “ban” TikTok, but I have zero problems with fining the shit out of them for violating privacy laws https://www.politico.eu/... Alexandra S. Levine / @ali_lev : TikTok's lead regulator in the EU has fined the company $370M for children's privacy violations under GDPR. Other TikTok fines related to kids' data: Britain: $16M in 2023. Netherlands: ~$1M in 2021. FTC: $5.7M https://musical.ly/ settlement in 2019.https://www.forbes.com/ ... Robert Bateman / @robertjbateman : TikTok gets a €345 million fine from the Irish DPC after another “binding decision” from colleagues at the EDPB. Main issues: • Data minimisation • Data protection by design and by default • Security • Transparency No Art 8 GDPR (children's consent), BUT... [image] Lukasz Olejnik / @lukolejnik : €345,000,000 fine for TikTok. Violation of data protection rules. The details are SHOCKING. #GDPR https://edpb.europa.eu/... [image] LinkedIn: Dr. Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna : “finding, in particular, that TikTok Technology Limited (TikTok) infringed the GDPR's principle of fairness when processing personal data relating to children between the ages of 13 and 17” … Lee A Bygrave : So who says the Irish DPC is toothless? It might be slow, hopelessly understaffed, and somewhat out of kilter with its European fellow DPAs … Omer Tene : DPC Ireland fines TikTok 345 million euros: The enforcement action against TikTok should be a wake up call to a vast swath of the online/mobile ecosystem … Forums: r/neoliberal : TikTok hit with €345M fine for violating children's privacy
TechCrunchNatasha Lomas
Context & Ripple Effects
The Irish regulator’s decision followed closely related coverage of the same €345M GDPR action, centering on TikTok’s treatment of children’s data. TikTok said several criticized settings had already changed, including making under-16 accounts private by default.
TikTok must pay the €345M penalty and address the DPC’s outstanding GDPR compliance requirements within three months.
The ruling puts TikTok’s child-account settings and related data-handling controls under formal regulatory scrutiny, despite its claim that some settings had already been changed.
Second-order effects
Other social platforms serving minors in Europe have a clearer enforcement signal to review default privacy settings and the data practices behind them.
TikTok faces a parallel legal and operational burden: its later appeal of the decision means compliance work and regulatory litigation can proceed at the same time.
Third-order effects
If this pattern holds, protections for minors will be enforced through overlapping EU rulebooks rather than a single privacy process, raising the cost of operating youth-focused platform features.
The case points toward privacy-by-default becoming a more consequential product-design constraint for large consumer platforms, though the scope will depend on future enforcement decisions and appeals.
The trend: European oversight of large platforms is increasingly converging on child safety, privacy defaults, and accountability for the design of youth-facing products.
TikTok is solidly a big tech company now. It's on the list of gatekeepers as defined by the EU's digital markets act (DMA) and now has their first GDPR fine. I remember when musical.ly was a cute little lip syncing app popular with teens. You either die a hero or live long eno…
TikTok is really, really popular with kids. This month, a survey of 5,000 Irish schoolchildren found that the majority of 12-year-olds in Ireland use TikTok, ranging between 55pc in primary school to 80pc in secondary school.
Today's decision primarily relates to features & settings in the app as it was in 2020. Most of the criticisms are no longer relevant because we changed the settings before the investigation even began, such as making all under-16 accounts private-by-default back in early 2021.
TikTok's response to today's €3.45m GDPR fine. They already fixed it. Fair enough to point this out, as the DPC does in its decision. That's why fines *do* matter a bit—most stuff gets fixed with a tap on the shoulder, but the unlawfulness still needs addressing. [image]
Honest question (and not in a trollish way): Are these online platforms less law-abiding than companies in other sectors of the economy, or other, non-infrastructural types of company? When every day seems to bring another set of huge fines, it sometimes seems that way.
It's important that tech companies are held fully accountable for the safety and privacy of children. Gone are the days when unclear info could be used to trick children to give up give up their data. #Tiktok
@DPCIreland today announced the decision of its investigation into TikTok. Read more about our response and how we're committed to continuing to strengthen protections for teenagers on our platform. 👇https://newsroom.tiktok.com/ ...
The 🇮🇪 DPC decision published today in relation to TikTok focuses on settings in place in 2020. Most criticisms are no longer relevant as we made changes before the investigation even began, eg setting all <16 accounts to private by default. More here: https://newsroom.tiktok.com…
Interesting that TikTok also commissioned a report and submitted it in defence of the transparency of privacy settings to children, written by @alicetiara Alice Marwick, but its conclusion was rejected by the Irish DPC.
This seems fine/good. I oppose misguided calls to “ban” TikTok, but I have zero problems with fining the shit out of them for violating privacy laws https://www.politico.eu/...
TikTok's lead regulator in the EU has fined the company $370M for children's privacy violations under GDPR. Other TikTok fines related to kids' data: Britain: $16M in 2023. Netherlands: ~$1M in 2021. FTC: $5.7M https://musical.ly/ settlement in 2019.https://www.forbes.com/ ...
TikTok gets a €345 million fine from the Irish DPC after another “binding decision” from colleagues at the EDPB. Main issues: • Data minimisation • Data protection by design and by default • Security • Transparency No Art 8 GDPR (children's consent), BUT... [image]