ByteDance Faces $30 Million Fine in Brazil Over TikTok Child Data Privacy Violations

Brazil’s data protection authority has imposed a fine of nearly $30m on TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, citing the alleged mishandling of personal data belonging to children and teenagers. This action marks the country's latest regulatory step against major social media companies.

According to the regulatory body's ruling, TikTok violated data privacy laws during both guest browsing sessions and logged-in accounts by collecting and processing the personal information of young users without adequate safeguards or a valid legal basis. The regulator estimates that the platform may have unlawfully processed data from at least 8 million children, pointing to systemic flaws in TikTok’s age-verification system.

The company maintains the right to appeal the decision within the next 10 days. In addition to the financial penalty, the ruling orders TikTok to delete all data gathered unlawfully.

Furthermore, Brazil’s regulatory authority instructed ByteDance to develop an enhanced and comprehensive youth-protection framework. The regulator emphasized that TikTok’s "logged-out feed"—which permits users to view content without registering an account—allows widespread access for minors while evading age-verification controls. Unlike in Brazil, this specific feature remains restricted to registered users in the United States and Europe.

This enforcement follows an earlier directive this month requiring the social media platform Discord to suspend its livestreaming feature nationwide over allegations that it failed to protect minors. That decision came in the wake of the suicide of a 13-year-old girl following a livestream where authorities reported she was incited to self-harm. Launched in 2015, the voice and text chat application has achieved widespread popularity among gamers.

The administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, alongside the Supreme Court, has pursued various initiatives to regulate online activities for minors with mixed outcomes. These efforts parallel similar regulatory measures currently underway in nations such as Australia, Canada, and Indonesia.