TikTok under fire in Italy after girl’s death linked to challenge

Media reported that the girl was taking part in a so-called blackout or hanging challenge on video app TikTok, which sees participants strangle themselves and film it with their smartphones to post online. — AP

Italy’s data protection watchdog ordered TikTok to step up enforcement of its age restrictions on Jan 22 after a young girl reportedly died from taking part in a social media challenge.

The Italian Data Protection Authority, a parliamentary body, demanded that TikTok immediately suspend accounts for which it could not verify the age of the user.