The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has fined the world’s most popular online photo and video sharing platform, Instagram, with a massive 405 million euros. The reason for this penalty was that the data privacy of children’s accounts had been violated. Meta, the umbrella company of Instagram, announced that they will appeal the decision.
The penalty in Ireland came after children were found to have converted their accounts into business accounts. So much so that a child who was not yet 18 years old could make his personal account a commercial account, so he could see how many people had entered his account. However, in this case, the phone number and e-mail address of the child with the account were shared publicly. Here, Instagram was accused of being silent about all this and was subject to a fine of 405 million euros.
The biggest punishment ever!
DPC has included different platforms and institutions and organizations in the scope of the investigation so far. In fact, WhatsApp, another subsidiary of Meta, was fined 225 million euros last year. However, DPC has never given such a high penalty before.
Speaking to the BBC, Instagram officials say the decision is unfair. According to the statement of company officials, the feature in question was changed last year. With the changes, the accounts of all users under the age of 18 were made private by default, and only those they knew could access accounts belonging to children. In addition, a child under the age of 18 receives messages only from the elders they follow. Here, Meta will appeal the penalty by referring to these features. It is unknown at this time how the appeal process will turn out.
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