Brazil's ANPD fines TikTok R$153.7 million

Update September 5, 2026: this coverage has been revised to reflect that the ANPD did not order TikTok shut down or banned in Brazil. It also adds the internal breakdown of the fine, which points to failures in legal basis, prevention, accountability, and responsibility.

Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority fined ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, R$153,769,671.33 for failures in protecting the personal data of children and teenagers. It is the largest fine the authority has issued since Brazil’s LGPD took effect, and the ruling includes deletion orders, compliance reporting, and a specific remediation plan for minors.

What did the ANPD determine about TikTok?

The ANPD concluded that TikTok processed minors’ personal data without a valid legal basis under the LGPD and did not have enough safeguards to keep children and teenagers from accessing parts of the platform. The decision cites five violations of Articles 6 and 7 of the law, which were classified as serious offenses with no mitigating factors.

The decision, identified as Despacho Decisório nº 27/2026/CGS/SFI and published in the Diário Oficial da União, also ordered stricter default privacy settings for users under 16. It further suspended ads in the feed for users who are not registered.

What compliance measures did the ruling order?

The ruling requires deletion of the records of Brazilian users ages 13 to 18 whose parental consent has not been regularized within a defined deadline, and it also orders third parties that received those data to do the same. TikTok must provide the ANPD with evidence of compliance through system logs validated by the encarregado, or DPO.

The decision also includes a compliance plan to strengthen protection for children and teenagers on the platform, aligning product design, moderation, and transparency with LGPD standards. According to specialized coverage, failure to meet the deletion and reporting obligations could trigger a daily fine of more than US$26,000 as long as the violation continues.

How is the fine structured and how broad was it?

Specialists in digital marketing and compliance in Brazil broke the penalty into three main fines: about R$63.1 million for processing data without a legal basis under Article 7, another R$63.1 million for violating the prevention principle in Article 6, item VIII, and R$27.4 million for failing to meet the accountability and responsibility principle in Article 6, item X.

Tech Policy Press said the three fines were calculated based on ByteDance’s revenue in Brazil, a factor that can increase financial exposure for platforms operating at scale. According to a legal analysis published by Migalhas on August 31, 2026, the internal split is roughly R$63.17 million for legal-basis issues in data processing, another R$63.17 million for prevention failures, and about R$27.4 million for accountability and the duty to provide an accounting. Migalhas said the structure reflects an enforcement approach focused on accountability and privacy by design under the LGPD.

In coverage for U.S. audiences, Brazil Reports said the ANPD estimates that at least 8 million minors were affected by TikTok’s shortcomings in age verification and teen account management.

What impact does this case have on other platforms?

The TikTok sanction adds to another regulatory push in Brazil against major tech companies. Brazil’s government, through the Advocacia-Geral da União, filed a civil suit for roughly R$500 million against Discord over alleged failures to protect children from harmful content, alongside an ANPD order that temporarily suspended livestream functionality in Brazil.

Later coverage said the restriction on Discord also covered other video features until the company proves it has effective protections for minors. In that case, the ANPD is the main LGPD enforcement authority and can impose fines of up to R$50 million per violation and, in cases of repeat offenses or serious noncompliance, order a platform suspended or barred from the Brazilian market.

The ANPD also has at least ten monitoring and enforcement procedures underway against other platforms, including Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, WhatsApp, Telegram, X, Discord, and TikTok itself. According to the agency’s president, the TikTok penalty serves as a warning to other apps and big tech companies about the limits of regulatory dialogue.

Specialized sources also link the case to the US$400 million settlement in the United States over child privacy, as well as to the broader debate over the so-called ECA Digital, which is strengthening public policy on child protection online in Brazil.