Italian authorities restrict TikTok's access for certain users following girl's death

Italy’s data protection authority, on January 22, said that it was imposing an immediate block on TikTok’s access to data for any user whose age has not been verified. The ban came following the death of a 10-year-old girl from Sicily, who “accidentally” killed her self after participating in TikTok’s viral ‘blackout challenge’. TikTok, owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, has repeatedly drawn flak for its dangerous online challenges like outlet challenge, skull breaker challenge amongst others.

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The data protection authority, in December last year, had advised TikTok of a series of violations which included allowing minors to sign up easily on the platform, lack of transparency, no respect of privacy inter alia. However, as violations continued, the authority imposed the block. As per Associated Press, the block would remain in place until February 15 after which further analysis would be done.

“While waiting to receive a response, the authority decided to take action to ensure the immediate protection of minors in Italy registered on the network,” the authority said in a statement.

TikTok banned in US, India

TikTok has been banned in multiple countries including American and India. In a massive crackdown against Chinese apps, the government of India, in June 2020 banned TikTok along with 48 others. The Centre had stated that it has received many complaints from various sources including several reports about the misuse of these apps for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India. Hence, in a move to protect the sovereignty of Indian Cyberspace and to ensure interests of crores of Indian mobile users, the government has stated that this was a major blow to China’s Digital Silk Route ambitions.

With the pandemic pushing people inside their homes, the use of social media has gained momentum. However, it has also led to increased use of social media and it's viral challenges that often end up in accidents. As of now, there are over 41 people whose death has been linked to TikTok. 

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