Officials in the European Union have slapped TikTok with a massive fine after the social media platform was caught sending user data to Communist China.
The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) slapped a $600 million fine on TikTok for violating the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The Verge reports that in a landmark ruling, the DPC found that TikTok breached GDPR by transferring European users’ data to servers in China.
The discovery raises significant concerns about data privacy and security.
TikTok failed to ensure that data transferred to China would be protected to a standard equivalent to that required by the EU, the DPC’s investigation revealed.
The court specifically highlighted China’s anti-terrorism and counterespionage laws as potential risks.
The laws could allow the Chinese Communist Party to access the personal information of European users.
The massive fine comprises two parts.
TikTok received a €485 million ($503M) fine for sending the data to China.
In addition, the DPC issued another €45 million ($50.9M) for TikTok’s inadequate privacy policy.
The privacy policy had failed to sufficiently explain the data transfers, the investigation found.
Despite TikTok’s recent efforts to update its privacy policy in 2022, which the court deemed “compliant,” and its