Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) started an official investigation into social media application TikTok for a “data security breach in the protection of personal data,” state-run Anadolu Agency reported on July 2.
The video, photo and music application will be placed under official investigation and could be fined.
The move came after an increasing number of reports pointed to the Chinese company’s personal data breaches and security flaws.
The KKVK had fined social media giant Facebook some 3,250,000 Turkish Liras in May of 2019.
Founded in 2012, the Chinese application’s popularity soared in the West in 2019.
TikTok was blocked on Google and Apple app stores in India for posing a “threat to sovereignty and integrity.”
With more than 600 million downloads, India has accounted for 30% of TikTok’s 2 billion downloads worldwide so far.
TikTok said in a statement that India had invited the company to respond to the ban and submit clarifications, adding that it complies with all data security and privacy requirements. It did not comment on the fate of its expansion plan.
When TikTok was banned briefly in India last year after a state court said the app encouraged pornography, the company told the Supreme Court the ban cost it roughly $15 million a month.