The European Union is formally investigating TikTok’s compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission has announced.
Areas the Commission are focusing on in this investigation of TikTok are linked to the protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and the risk management of addictive design and harmful content, in said in a press release.
The DSA is the bloc’s online governance and content moderation rulebook which, since Saturday, has applied broadly to — likely — thousands of platforms and services. However, since last summer, larger platforms, such as TikTok, have faced a set of extra requirements in areas like algorithmic transparency and systemic risk and it’s those rules that the video-sharing platform is now being investigated under.
Today’s move follows several months of information gathering by the Commission, which enforces the DSA rules for larger platforms — including in areas like child protection and disinformation risks.
The EU’s concerns over TikTok’s approach to content governance and safety predate the DSA coming into force on larger platforms.
TikTok was contacted for comment on the EU’s formal investigation. It’s the second such proceeding, after the probe the bloc opened on Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) in December, also citing a string of concerns.
Penalties for confirmed breaches of the DSA can reach up to 6% of global annual turnover.
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