TikTok is fighting an Information Commissioner Office information notice as a part of an investigation into the platform’s recommender systems.
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The ICO in March 2025 launched an investigation into TikTok over how it uses 13- to 17-year-old children’s personal information to issue recommendations and deliver suggested content to their feeds. The regulator had cited growing concerns over social media platforms using data generated by children' s online activity in recommender systems and serving young people “inappropriate and harmful content”.
Information Commissioner John Edwards told the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee today that the regulator served TikTok an information notice requiring it to disclose data which would allow it to assess the platform’s algorithms.
“TikTok has appealed that information notice on the basis that they believe they are entirely concerned with processing data for special purposes, which means artistic expression or journalistic purposes,” Edwards said.
The platform had made similar arguments in its preliminary appeal against a £12.7 million fine handed to it by the ICO in April 2023 over the unlawful processing of children's data. It had claimed that the regulator’s penalty notice exceeded its powers as the platform’s processing was covered by the Data Protection Act’s special purposes exemption.
TikTok’s counsel Anya Proops KC had told the First-tier Tribunal during a hearing in May that the platform was a “free expression service” fundamentally designed to enable artistic expression, adding that special purpose processing is essential to its operations. But the tribunal ultimately sided with the ICO, noting that there must be more than an “accidental or incidental connection to the special purposes” for the protections under section 156 of the Data Protection Act 2018 to apply.
Edwards added today that the ICO had won “on every point” it argued before the tribunal in that appeal, which ultimately found that the regulator did have jurisdiction in the case. He said this is therefore “an encouraging sign” with regards to the ICO’s ability to undertake such investigations and hold platforms to account.
A spokesperson for the ICO told Lexology PRO that the information notice had required TikTok to supply the regulator “with detail about their data protection practices," and confirmed that TikTok has appealed against it.
The regulator had also said in March that it is investigating forum site Reddit and image-sharing site Imgur over their age assurance measures. Edwards said today that the Reddit investigation is ongoing – “I don’t believe there has been a challenge to providing any information,” he added.
Meanwhile, the ICO issued a notice of intent to fine Imgur in September; the platform has since withdrawn its services in the UK.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment.