EU Opens Up An Investigation Into TikTok Over Child Safeguard

In a significant development, the European Union opened an investigation into TikTok’s potential breach of obligations to protect minors. EU will investigate whether TikTok breached online content rules or not. The byteDance-owned platform may have failed to protect children and provide transparent advertising. If this came out be true, TikTok would have to pay a fine of up to 6% of its global turnover.

EU Opens Formal Proceedings Against TikTok

TikTok needs to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into action on February 17. According to the act, large online platforms and search engines need to make efforts to manage illegal online content and risks to public security. European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton decided to start the investigation after analyzing the short video app’s risk assessment report. A TikTok spokesperson stated:

“TikTok has pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform, issues the whole industry is grappling with,”

The investigation of European Commission will look into the design of TikTok’s system, including algorithmic systems that may provoke behavioral addictions and/or create so-called “rabbit hole effects.” Moreover, it will also investigate whether TikTok has taken appropriate and proportionate measures to provide a high level of privacy, safety, and security for children. In addition to the issue of protecting minors, the EU will also look at whether the ByteDance-owned platform provides a reliable database of advertisements on its platform or not. It will help researchers scrutinize potential online risks. So, let’s wait for what happens next. Will TikTok comply with the EU’s DSA? Time will tell.