The European Commission today accused the Chinese short-video sharing platform TikTok of failing to ensure an adequate level of privacy, safety and protection for minors’ accounts, a possible violation of the Digital Services Act.
“The European Commission today communicated to TikTok preliminary findings according to which minors’ accounts do not comply with the safety standards required by the Digital Services Act,” the community executive announced in a statement.
According to the European Commission, TikTok’s account settings “expose minors’ accounts and content too broadly,” allowing, notably, minors to choose to make their accounts public and content from users aged 16 to 17 to be recommended to other users through a personalized section.
This exposure can result in “unwanted contact from potential perpetrators of abuse” and create risks of content being used for cyberbullying, in addition to potentially giving strangers “a window into a child’s life,” Brussels warns.
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Even when minors opt for private accounts, these can be easily found through lists of followers and users followed by other accounts, while profile photos remain accessible to anyone, including users without a TikTok account.
The community executive therefore considers that TikTok must adjust the default settings of minors’ public accounts, so that content is, by default, visible only to users the minor has accepted.
Although older minors may choose to share content with a wider audience within TikTok, this should not be accessible to a global audience outside the platform, argues the European Commission, which also considers that TikTok should stop recommending minors’ content through the personalized section.
The preliminary findings result from an in-depth investigation that included analysis of the interface, internal data and TikTok documents, as well as interviews with law enforcement officers and experts in child protection, child abuse and neuropsychology.
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The formal investigation into TikTok’s compliance with the Digital Services Act was launched in February 2024 and also covers the platform’s potentially addictive design, regarding which the European Commission adopted preliminary findings in February of this year.
The process also covers the so-called “rabbit hole effect” (a situation in which a user starts by watching certain content and, through the platform’s automatic recommendations, is progressively led to other content) of TikTok’s recommendation systems, as well as the risk of minors having an experience unsuitable for their age due to incorrect representation of their age.
The investigation into these matters remains ongoing, and the findings presented today do not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation. TikTok can now consult the case documents and respond in writing to the European Commission.
If the position is confirmed, Brussels could adopt a non-compliance decision and impose a fine that could reach 6% of the company’s global annual turnover. The Digital Services Act establishes obligations for platforms operating in the European Union, including the adoption of measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and protection for minors.
