ByteDance rivals supermassive technology company and game publisher Tencent (Tencent) in 2022. According to the privately held company, it earned $80 billion in the last year (open in new tab), up from $60 billion in 2021; ByteDance was also fined by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for misusing children's data.

The fine (opens in new tab) from the ICO is for using personal data of children who used the app without parental consent between May 2018 and July 2020 (via The Guardian (opens in new tab)) For companies like ByteDance is) a paltry £12.7 million.

Now, TikTok states in its terms of service (opens in new tab) that no one under the age of 13 can use the video-sharing app. It states, "We monitor underage use and will suspend your account if we reasonably suspect you are a minor.

But it wasn't enough for the ICO, which estimates that up to 1.4 million under-13s in the UK used the platform in 2020, and that TikTok failed to properly check many of them.

"As a result, an estimated 1 million under-13s were improperly granted access to the platform and TikTok collected and used their personal data," says UK Information Commissioner John Edwards. 'In other words, their data could have been used to track them, profile them, and deliver harmful and inappropriate content on their next scroll.'

Initially, the ICO claimed that TikTok was in breach of its rules on the use of "special category data" (particularly sensitive data), but later retracted this after consultation with TikTok representatives.

Failure to comply with rules in the UK and abroad could be more damaging to TikTok than just financially. The company has fended off groups in the U.S. that want to ban the app altogether, and has already banned it in India, citing widespread concerns about Chinese developers' apps regarding privacy and security. Government officials in the United States (opens in new tab), the United Kingdom (opens in new tab), and Canada (opens in new tab) have already banned the app on official work phones.

ByteDance has a real fight on its hands to get governments on its side.