TikTok Fined in Italy Over Harmful Content

By Mauro Orru

Italy's competition watchdog fined TikTok 10 million euros ($10.9 million), saying the company isn't doing enough to prevent the dissemination of what it called potentially dangerous content on the popular video-sharing app.

The Italian Competition Authority said Thursday that TikTok bears responsibility for the proliferation of content that might threaten the psychological and physical safety of users, particularly minors. The authority, known as AGCM, said the company isn't fully complying with its own guidelines to ensure that its platform is a safe space, disregarding what it called teenagers' tendency to emulate group behavior.

TikTok didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the group's guidelines, TikTok doesn't allow content depicting, promoting, normalizing or glorifying activities that could lead to suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, though users can share their experiences with these issues to raise awareness.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has grown into a massive social-media platform that is especially popular with young users, including minors. A 2021 investigation from The Wall Street Journal found that TikTok's algorithms can drive minors to videos about sex, drugs, depression and eating disorders.

In 2022, parents of two children filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against TikTok in California, alleging that the minors had died from participating in the "blackout challenge" that involves people choking themselves until they pass out.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 14, 2024 06:15 ET (10:15 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.