EU Opens Official Probe of TikTok Over Content, Minors, Privacy – Source: securityboulevard.com

The European Commission is once again turning its attention to TikTok, announcing a wide-ranging investigation into the China-based social media site over concerns about the addictive nature of its site and content, possible harm to minors, and data privacy.

The probe will determine whether TikTok is in violation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the two-year-old law that regulates online platforms like social networks, marketplaces, and app stores to ensure they are safe for users and don’t spread disinformation.

The EC already has run a preliminary investigation for several months, including asking TikTok – and similar companies – last year for information about data access, illegal activity, disinformation, and the protection of minors, and used that to inform its decision this week to launch a formal investigation.

“The safety and well-being of online users in Europe is crucial,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president for the EC’s Europe Fit for the Digital Age program, said in a statement. “TikTok needs to take a close look at the services they offer and carefully consider the risks that they pose to their users – young as well as old. The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation without prejudice to the outcome.”

In a statement to media, TikTok said it has “pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform, issues the whole industry is grappling with. We’ll continue to work with experts and industry to keep young people on TikTok safe, and look forward to now having the opportunity to explain this work in detail to the Commission.”

In the Crosshairs

TikTok has become a target of interest of regulators in the United States and elsewhere due to its content, the access by minors to certain content, and worries about data security, particularly given it being a Chinese company owned by Beijing-based tech company ByteDance.

The video-sharing platform has pushed back at some of the concerns, including through television and online ads featuring good works that people use TikTok to perform.

The EC’s investigation will focus on such areas as TikTok’s algorithms that may drive behavioral addictions or create “rabbit holes” that users – particularly minors – could fall into.

“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 radicalisation processes,” the EC wrote. “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.”

Effect on Minors a Key Concern

The investigators also will determine whether TikTok is complying with the DSA’s requirements for appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the privacy, safety, and security of minors, particularly using default privacy settings for minors in how they design and run recommendation systems, and for providing a searchable and reliability repository of ads shown on TikTok.

They also want TikTok to improve the transparency of the platform, noting “suspected shortcomings in giving researchers access to TikTok’s publicly accessible data as mandated [by] the DSA.”

TikTok came under the DSA’s authority in April 2023 when it told the EU is had 135.9 million active monthly users in the European Union and was designated a Very Large Online Platform. From that point, it had four months to comply with DSA obligations. As of February 17, the DSA applies to all online intermediaries in the bloc.

“The opening of formal proceedings empowers the Commission to take further enforcement steps, such as interim measures, and non-compliance decisions,” the EC wrote. “The Commission is also empowered to accept any commitment made by TikTok to remedy on the matters subject to the proceeding.”

More Information Needed

Investigators will continue gathering evidence through such avenues as more requests for information, interviews, and inspections. There also is no deadline for the investigation, according to the EC. How long it lasts depends on such aspects as the complexity of the case, how willingly TikTok cooperates, and the arguments it makes in defending itself.

TikTok isn’t the first social media platform to come under DSA scrutiny by the EC. In December, a similar investigation into X (formerly Twitter) was announced, citing concerns about disseminating illegal content, combatting disinformation, the transparency of the platform, and its Blue checks program. That investigation is ongoing.

Amnesty International, which last yaer published its own reports about TikTok’s allegedly aggressive pursuit of young users and its data-collection practices, applauded the EU’s decision to investigate the company.

“By design, TikTok aims to maximize engagement, which systemically undermines children’s rights,” Damini Satija, program director at the organization’s Amnesty Tech group, said in a statement. “It is essential that TikTok takes urgent action to address these systemic risks. Children and young users should be offered the right to access safe platforms, and the protection of these rights cannot wait any longer.”