Kathmandu,

September 6,

Ireland's data privacy watchdog has levied a record 405 million euro (USD 402 million) fine against social media platform Instagram after an investigation into its handling of children's data.

A spokesperson for Meta, Instagram's parent company, has said that it plans to appeal against the ruling, said Reuters.

The investigation, which started in 2020, focused on child users between the ages of 13 and 17 who were allowed to operate business accounts, which facilitated the publication of the user's phone number and/or email address.