TikTok ordered to pay damages to Brazilian user after account hack

The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJMG) has ordered ByteDance, the company responsible for TikTok, to pay R$ 10,000 in damages to a neuropsychopedagogue from Brasópolis. The ruling follows a hack in 2025 that allowed criminals to control the professional's account, which had 11,000 followers, for nearly eight months.

According to the victim, the hackers used the profile to promote financial investment scams, specifically using screenshots of purported lucrative cryptocurrency operations to deceive followers via direct messages. Although the user contacted app support immediately after the attack to report the fraud and request access recovery, the company failed to take action.

While a lower court initially ruled that the company should not be held responsible, the 11th Civil Chamber of the TJMG overturned that decision. ByteDance had argued there was no causal link between its conduct and the damage, suggesting the incident was the fault of the user or third parties through password mismanagement. However, the court found the platform liable due to its omission in failing to block the profile or provide measures to recover the account after being alerted.