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Brazil fines TikTok owner
Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority fined TikTok’s owner ByteDance 153.8 million reais, around $29.81 million, over its handling of personal data belonging to teenagers.
“imposed a penalty of 153.8 million reais, around $29.81 million”
The regulator said TikTok’s Brazilian unit processed data of users aged 13 to 18 without a valid legal basis, and ordered ByteDance to delete the affected teenagers’ data within 60 business days if proper legal representation or assistance had not been established.
The fine can be reduced by 25% if ByteDance waives its appeal rights within 10 business days and pays within 20 business days, and the company could face an additional daily penalty of 137,081.49 reais for failing to meet the data deletion requirement.
In a separate report, ABC News said Brazil’s data protection regulator fined ByteDance more than 153 million reais, nearly $30 million, because of alleged failures in handling personal data of children and teenagers across both logged-in accounts and guest browsing sessions.
ABC News also said the company can still appeal the decision in the next 10 days, and that the regulator ordered TikTok to eliminate all data gathered illegally.
What the regulator ordered
Beyond the money, the Brazilian regulator ordered ByteDance to delete the data collected in violation of regulations and to notify third parties that received the data, according to News Mobile.
The regulator also required ByteDance to submit a technical report along with system audit logs showing compliance with the order, and it set a deadline of 60 business days for deletion.
Euronews reported that the ANPD concluded TikTok did not protect adequately minors under 16 and treated their personal data irregularly, leading to a fine and new restrictions for the platform.
Euronews said the platform must apply automatically more restrictive privacy settings to accounts of minors under 16, reinforce parental supervision tools, and introduce stricter content filters.
In Spanish-language coverage, La Nota San Juan said the agency required the company to “delete data obtained in an irregular manner” and also required a plan to strengthen protection measures for children and adolescents.
Broader crackdown and next steps
The TikTok case fits into a wider Brazilian push to regulate platforms for minors, with ABC News saying Brazil’s government under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the country’s Supreme Court have tried to regulate the use of the internet by minors.
“recommended the suspension of live broadcasts of platform Discord”
ABC News added that Brazil’s first lady, Rosângela Lula da Silva, known as Janja, said on Aug. 6 that the platform should be taken offline, citing the case.
The same regulator had earlier recommended the suspension of live broadcasts of Discord after it was linked to a suicide case, and ABC News said the regulator’s action against TikTok was its latest move against social media companies.
Euronews said the decision against TikTok included restrictions tied to access without registration, including that TikTok must suspend advertising in all Brazil and limit content available to those apt for all ages, while restricting time of use to 12 hours.
Euronews also said that users who access without an account cannot publish content or view live streams, and that the regulator detected practices contrary to the Ley General de Protección de Datos (LGPD) in two modalities of access to TikTok.