Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Italy Demands TikTok to Block Users after Girl Death


Sat 23 Jan 2021 | 10:26 AM
Ahmed Yasser

Italy has called on TikTok firm on Friday to ban the accounts of any users whose age could not be verified , following the death of a 10-year-old girl who had been using the app, according to Guardian report.

The girl died in a Palermo hospital after being discovered on Wednesday by her five-year-old sister in the family bathroom with her cellphone, which was seized by police.

On other hand, the Italian Data Protection Authority reported in a statement, that it would block the app with immediate effect until 15 February, by which date the network would have to meet the regulator’s demands.

Meanwhile, the app which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, noted it had not managed to identify any content on its site that could have encouraged the girl to participate in any such challenge, but was helping the authorities in the probe over possible incitement to suicide.

Moreover, the firm spokesman explained that the safety of the TikTok community is their absolute priority, for this motive we do not allow any content that encourages, promotes or glorifies behaviour that could be dangerous.

In contrast, Medical experts have warned about the danger of the challenge being taken up by some young people, who refer to it as scarfing or the choking game in which restricted oxygen to the brain results in a high. Noteworthy, the Chinese version of TikTok app surpassed 600 million daily active users on August 2020.