Heavy multi-billion dollar fines rained down on Meta, Google and TikTok
Major social media platforms such as Meta, Google and TikTok have been hit with multi-billion dollar fines and settlements due to reasons such as privacy violations, harm to children's mental health, and unlawful processing of location data.
Digital media companies are facing severe legal sanctions amounting to tens of billions of dollars due to violating user privacy, steering children toward platform addiction, and unlawfully processing location data.
A court in the U.S. state of New Mexico fined Meta $25 billion on the grounds that it misled users regarding its privacy and content moderation policies. This lawsuit is based on data breach allegations related to the sale of approximately 87 million Facebook profile data points to Cambridge Analytica. In August, Meta also reached an $18 billion settlement with 52 U.S. attorneys general over accusations that Facebook and Instagram harm the mental and physical health of youth.
In September, the European Union's personal data regulatory body fined Google 403 million euros on the grounds that it failed to comply with transparency and fairness principles in processing data from web application activity and location history.
As for TikTok, it settled in September in a lawsuit in the state of Alabama by agreeing to pay $100 million and implement usage limitations over allegations of encouraging children to overuse the platform. In August, the company also concluded a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at protecting children's online privacy with a $400 million settlement.
Sources
- trthaber.com · Link