Venezuela Fines TikTok $10 Million Over Deadly Challenges

Venezuela's Supreme Court fined TikTok $10 million for not implementing measures to prevent harmful challenges, linked to children's deaths. Venezuelan authorities blame TikTok for these deaths, while the platform remains unresponsive to the allegations. The government has history of media censorship, recently banning social platforms like X over political tensions.

The Venezuelan Supreme Court has fined TikTok $10 million, citing the platform's negligence in curbing harmful viral video challenges that allegedly resulted in the recent deaths of three children. Judge Tania D'Amelio asserted that TikTok must pay the hefty sum within eight days and establish a local office to ensure compliance with Venezuela's laws.

The mechanics of enforcing this fine on TikTok, headquartered in China, remain unclear. Previously, Venezuela has enforced stringent measures by blocking numerous websites failing to align with the national telecommunications regulations. TikTok has not issued any comments following the court's ruling.

Incidents linked to these challenges have brought criticism from high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including President Nicolas Maduro. This case adds to the country's track record of censoring media outlets, as demonstrated by the ban on social media platform X amid political controversies involving its owner, Elon Musk.

(With inputs from agencies.)