News

TikTok Fined $93K By Turkey For Inadequate Data Protection

TikTok has been penalized by authorities for failing to ensure adequate security to prevent the unlawful processing of personal data.

Published

4 years ago

March 2, 2023

Nour Nasir

tiktok fined $93000 by turkey for inadequate data protection

Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Board (KVKK) has announced that a fine of $93,000 has been levied against TikTok for failing to safeguard users, stating that the company “did not take all necessary measures to ensure the appropriate level of security to prevent unlawful processing of personal data”.

Recently, the TikTok app was banned from being installed on the devices of US, EU and Canadian government officials over security concerns and follows increasing global criticism of how the popular video site manages and shares data.

The platform, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, insists it operates no differently from other social media firms and says it would never comply with a data transfer order.

Also Read: MENA’s Biggest Online Piracy Site Shahed4U Shuts Down

In addition to data protection issues, the KVKK stated that TikTok must translate its terms of service into Turkish and update privacy and cookie policies to comply with the country’s laws.

According to the latest figures, Turkey ranks at ninth place for the most users of TikTok worldwide, with over 30 million accounts registered on the video-sharing platform.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.