UK Regulators Fine TikTok £1.9 Million for Providing Inaccurate Data

TikTok has been fined nearly £1.9 million for failing to provide accurate parental control data to Ofcom, as stated by the communications regulator on Wednesday.

According to Ofcom, the Chinese video-sharing company initially provided inaccurate data and took over three weeks to inform the regulator after discovering the mistake.

Furthermore, it took an additional four months for TikTok to submit accurate but incomplete data, which was more than seven months past the original deadline.

These shortcomings caused Ofcom to remove information from its child safety transparency report at the eleventh hour, significantly disrupting its efforts to promote transparency.

After investigating the issues, Ofcom concluded that “TikTok failed to fully cooperate with Ofcom’s request for information and neglected its duties under the Communications Act 2003.”

The regulator imposed a fine of £1.875 million, with a 25% reduction due to TikTok’s acknowledgment of the investigation’s findings.

Suzanne Cater, Ofcom’s enforcement director, stated: “Ofcom’s role is to scrutinize platforms’ safety features, and accurate data submission is essential for holding tech companies accountable. Failure to provide accurate and timely data may result in enforcement action.”

Last year, TikTok was requested by Ofcom to disclose data on the usage of its parental controls feature “Family Pairing” as part of the regulator’s assessment of the platform’s safety measures for protecting children from harmful content.

Despite providing information on September 4, 2023, TikTok later admitted that the data was inaccurate nearly three months later. The company took over three weeks to notify Ofcom about the error, which was less than two weeks before the publication of Ofcom’s report.

TikTok committed to providing accurate data from another source and eventually submitted precise but incomplete information on March 28, 2024.

Ofcom’s investigation revealed “several failings” in TikTok’s data governance processes, including inadequate checks leading to inaccurate submissions and delays in rectifying errors.

Moreover, TikTok did not promptly inform Ofcom of the inaccuracies despite being aware that the data would be featured in an upcoming report, causing significant disruption to Ofcom’s transparency efforts.

Ofcom explained that the fine amount took into account TikTok’s status as a well-resourced company with regulatory knowledge, the impact the failings had on its work, and the fact that this was TikTok’s first breach of Ofcom’s rules.

In response to the fine, a TikTok spokesperson stated: “We inadvertently provided inaccurate information to Ofcom regarding the use of Family Pairing in the UK, resulting in an undercount of users of this parenting tool. We regret not reporting the error earlier and have since made improvements to our processes to prevent such issues.”

Previously, in April last year, TikTok was fined £12.7 million by the Information Commissioner’s Office for insufficient measures to prevent underage users and safeguard their data.

PA Media contributed to this report.