Italian Competition Authority Fines TikTok IDR 170.5 Billion

JAKARTA - Italy's competition authority has fined a total of 10 million euros (IDR 170.5 billion) to three units of social media giant TikTok due to inadequate examination of content that has the potential to harm young or vulnerable users, as announced on Thursday, March 14.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese companies, ByteDance, and other social media companies including Meta Platforms, which is the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is under pressure from regulators around the world to protect underage users.

Italian regulators refer to videos showing young people doing practices known as "French scarf (French scar)", a popular challenge among users involving slashing cheeks to leave long-lasting bruises on the cheekbones.

"We don't agree with this decision," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement about the antitrust fine. They added that the platform "has long restricted the appearance" of the French Bekas video to users under 18 years of age.

Last month, Italian communications authority AGCOM - a separate regulator - forced TikTok to remove the videos.

Competition authorities said Thursday the malicious videos had also been spread through a profiling algorithm.

"TikTok does not take adequate steps to prevent the dissemination of the content, and does not fully comply with the guidelines it has adopted, convincing customers that the platform is a'safe' space," the supervisory authority said.

In the United States, where it has about 170 million users, this social media app faces a ban unless owners from China sell it within about six months, in accordance with the provisions of a bill passed by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 13.