(Bloomberg) -- Venezuela’s top court imposed a $10 million fine on TikTok over viral challenges that killed three children and injured dozens of people in recent months.
In a Monday ruling, the court said the social media company should pay the fine to the country’s telecommunications agency within the next 10 days. It also ordered TikTok to establish an office in Venezuela.
The court summoned TikTok officials to appear last month in order to address the deaths of three children, aged 12, 13 and 14, after they participated in challenges that President Nicolas Maduro said included ingesting, inhaling and spreading “dangerous mixes” of chemicals.
The judges said that TikTok shared responsibility for its “lack of timely control” of the challenges on its platform. Money from the fine will go toward a compensation fund for victims, they said.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Maduro has attacked social media platforms such as TikTok and WhatsApp on the heels of a wave of repression by his regime against resistance to his self-declared win in July’s presidential election. Earlier this year he asked his supporters to remove WhatsApp, the Meta-owned messaging app, from their phones, as he said it’s being used by “fascists” to spread violence.
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