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TikTok Fined Again in Brazil for Violating Minors' Data Protection Rules

|Source: Reuters

On August 25, Brazil's National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) officially announced that it had fined TikTok's parent company ByteDance 153.7 million reais (approximately 210 million yuan, or about $29.9 million) for violations in the processing of personal data of children and adolescents. This is one of the heavyweight fines imposed by Brazilian data regulators against tech giants in recent years.

How Did This Come to Light?

This penalty was not an impulsive decision. The investigation dates back to a complaint in 2021, when Brazilian regulators suspected that TikTok was not complying with the local General Data Protection Law (LGPD, which can be understood as the Brazilian version of the GDPR) when processing adolescent data. After nearly two years of administrative investigation, the ANPD finally reached a penalty conclusion.

The core issue identified by the investigation was that TikTok lacked a legal basis for processing personal data of adolescents aged 13 to 18. More surprisingly, regulators estimated that during the reviewed period, data of up to 8 million minor users on the platform may have been improperly processed—exposing a clear flaw in the platform's age verification mechanism.

Specifically, the problem lay in TikTok's two access modes: one is the feed that allows browsing without registration, and the other is the feed tied to a registered account. In both modes, regulators determined that the platform failed to effectively prevent improper processing of minors' data at the source.

What Else Must TikTok Do Besides Paying the Fine?

This penalty is not just about "paying and moving on." The ANPD also issued a fairly detailed remediation list:

  • Delete improperly collected data, and ByteDance has committed to advancing a compliance remediation plan;
  • Automatically enable stricter privacy settings for accounts under 16 and strengthen parental supervision features;
  • Upgrade content filtering mechanisms to reduce exposure of inappropriate content to minors;
  • For the version that can be used without registration or login, stricter requirements are imposed: suspend advertising in Brazil, restrict content to "all-ages appropriate" ranges, cap daily usage time at 12 hours, and disable social features such as posting content, commenting, direct messaging, following others, and live streaming.

It is clear that regulators are targeting the gray area of "browsing without logging in"—after all, without a registered account, age verification is impossible, significantly lowering the barrier for minors to bypass oversight.

How Did TikTok Respond?

In response to the penalty, TikTok did not fully "admit fault." The company stated that the penalty targets historical behavior dating back to 2021 and does not take into account the compliance remediation plan approved by the ANPD in 2025, nor the series of additional protective measures added since then. TikTok emphasized that its current practices, whether users are logged in or not, already comply with Brazilian data protection law, and it expressed continued communication with regulators while also evaluating whether to pursue legal action.

In other words: the fine has been imposed, but TikTok believes it has "already improved," and this matter may not be over yet.

Not Just TikTok: Brazil's Regulatory Wave Is "For Real"

It is worth noting that this is not the first time Brazilian regulators have taken action against social platforms this year. Earlier this month, the ANPD ordered streaming platform Discord to suspend live streaming and video call features after a teenage girl was allegedly induced to commit suicide during a live broadcast. Discord has filed an appeal, and the case is still under review.

Looking further back, in 2024, Elon Musk's social platform X (formerly Twitter) was banned in Brazil for 40 days for refusing to comply with orders from Brazil's Supreme Court, and operations only resumed after the platform agreed to remediation.

Combined with Brazil's new regulations—requiring platforms to link accounts of users under 16 to parental accounts and mandating age verification—it is clear that Brazil is becoming a force to be reckoned with in global social media regulation. This tightening trend aligns with the broader direction of recent years in countries like Australia, France, and others, which have also tightened rules on minors' use of social media.

For all social platforms, "age verification" and "minor protection" are no longer optional courses that can be taken slowly; they are compulsory courses that must be completed as soon as possible.