TikTok hit with half a billion fine for sharing user data with China

TikTok has been fined more than half a billion dollars over allegations of illegal data practices, including funneling user data back to China.

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The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has put TikTok in its iron sights as the prominent video platform has been slapped with a 530 million euro, approximately $600 million, fine, as the regulatory body claims TikTok cannot guarantee user data is being stored per the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines. Moreover, the DPC states that TikTok admitted to storing limited European data in China, which the social video platform has denied in the past. TikTok has since informed the DPC it has deleted that data.

The fines against TikTok from the Irish data protection authority could certainly be damaging to the company, which is still fighting to stay within the United States. For those who don't know, TikTok was banned in the US for being a potential national security risk. US authorities were concerned that TikTok could be used as a surveillance app for China to spy on Americans, considering TikTok's owner, ByteDance, is a Chinese government-affiliated company.

In response to these concerns, TikTok was banned from operating in the US and briefly removed from both app stores before President Trump reinstated the app and gave it an extension on finding a US government-approved buyer.

"The GDPR requires that the high level of protection provided within the European Union continues where personal data is transferred to other countries. TikTok's personal data transfers to China infringed the GDPR because TikTok failed to verify, guarantee, and demonstrate that the personal data of [European Economic Area] users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU," said DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle in a statement