EU probes TikTok over alleged failure to protect minors

EU probes TikTok over alleged failure to protect minors

The European Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether TikTok may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the protection of minors, among others.

The Bytedance-owned company is also being investigated on issues concerning advertising transparency, data access for researchers, as well as the risk management of addictive design and harmful content.

The Commission said the investigation is based on the preliminary investigation conducted so far, including an analysis of the risk assessment report sent by TikTok in September 2023, as well as TikTok’s replies to the Commission’s formal Requests for Information on illegal content, protection of minors, and data access.

Under the EU’s DSA, which came into force this month, penalties for confirmed breaches can reach up to 6% of global annual turnover.

More insights

Providing details of the probe, the European Commission in a statement released on Monday, said the proceedings will focus on:

• “The compliance with the DSA obligations related to the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks, in terms of actual or foreseeable negative effects stemming from the design of TikTok’s system, including algorithmic systems, that may stimulate behavioural addictions and/ or create so-called ‘rabbit hole effects.

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• “Such assessment is required to counter potential risks for the exercise of the fundamental right to the person’s physical and mental well-being, the respect of the rights of the child as well as its impact on radicalization processes. Furthermore, the mitigation measures in place in this respect, notably age verification tools used by TikTok to prevent access by minors to inappropriate content, may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective;
• “The compliance with DSA obligations to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, particularly with regard to default privacy settings for minors as part of the design and functioning of their recommender systems;
• “The compliance with DSA obligations to provide a searchable and reliable repository for advertisements presented on TikTok;
• “The measures taken by TikTok to increase the transparency of its platform. The investigation concerns suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to TikTok’s publicly accessible data as mandated by Article 40 of the DSA.”

Background

TikTok was designated as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP) on 25 April 2023 under the EU’s Digital Services Act, following its declaration of having 135.9 million monthly active users in the EU. As a VLOP, four months from its designation, TikTok had to start complying with a series of obligations set out in the DSA.

Other companies affected by the DSA and listed as VLOP include Facebook, X (Twitter), Alibaba’s AliExpress, Amazon Marketplace, Apple AppStore, Booking.com, Google Play, Google Maps, Google Shopping, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, Wikipedia, YouTube, Zalando, Bing, and Google Search.

EU probes TikTok over alleged failure to protect minors