EU Opens Formal Probe Into TikTok Over Child Protection and Online Content

TikTok, a short video platform owned by a Chinese company, has over 142 million monthly users across the EU, up from 125 million last year.

Image Credit: Reuters

New Delhi: The European Union (EU) has initiated a formal inquiry into TikTok, a short video platform owned by a Chinese company, to determine potential violations of online content regulations, particularly concerning the protection of children.

This investigation falls under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a recent legislation aimed at regulating digital content. Notably, a short video platform TikTok has over 142 million monthly users across the EU, up from 125 million last year. Enacted on February 17, the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates strict actions for large online platforms and search engines to combat illegal online content and safeguard public security.

Key Concerns and Parameters

The European Commission has specified that the investigation will focus on issues such as the "rabbit hole" effect, addictive design, screen time limitations, age verification, and default privacy settings associated with TikTok.

Today we open an investigation into #TikTok over suspected breach of transparency & obligations to protect minors:

Addictive design & screen time limits

_ Rabbit hole effect

_ Age verification

_ Default privacy settings

Enforcing #DSA for safer Internet for youngsters pic.twitter.com/4d2F0FQUHw — Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) February 19, 2024

Second Major Inquiry

This marks the second major inquiry into an online platform following the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), with a previous investigation targeting Elon Musk's company X in December.

Thierry Breton, the EU's industry chief, stated that the decision to launch the investigation was made after reviewing TikTok's risk assessment report and its responses to information requests, confirming an earlier report by Reuters.

EU industry chief Thierry Breton on X said, "Today we open an investigation into TikTok over suspected breach of transparency & obligations to protect minors: addictive design & screen time limits, rabbit hole effect, age verification, default privacy settings".

TikTok Could Face Penalty Under DSA

TikTok's owner, China-based ByteDance, could face fines of up to 6% of its global turnover if TikTok is found guilty of breaching DSA rules. TikTok said it would continue to work with experts and the industry to keep young people on its platform safe and that it looked forward to explaining this work in detail to the European Commission.

"TikTok has pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform, issues the whole industry is grappling with," a TikTok spokesperson said.

It's #DSA O'clock!

As of today, the DSA starts applying to all online platforms in the EU _

Effective #enforcement is now key to protect our citizens from illegal content and to uphold their rights. pic.twitter.com/DloOzPuQnq — Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) February 17, 2024

Minors' Protection

It will also probe whether TikTok has put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors. As well as the issue of protecting minors, the Commission is looking at whether TikTok provides a reliable database of advertisements on its platform so that researchers can scrutinise potential online risks.

In the previous month, Apple announced its decision to permit EU customers to download apps directly without requiring them to go through its proprietary app store. This move was made in compliance with the Digital Markets Act introduced by the EU, which imposes fresh obligations on major digital "gatekeepers" such as Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, and Google. (With Inputs From Reuters)