EU launches formal probe into TikTok over potential child protection breaches

The European Commission has launched an investigation into TikTok, owned by ByteDance (BDNCE), to check if the Chinese-owned short-video app is following online content rules aimed at safeguarding children.

The investigation will look into possible violations of the Digital Services Act, and if found guilty, TikTok could be fined as much as 6% of its total global revenue or risk being banned.

Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the internal market, said the probe would focus on “suspected breach of transparency & obligations to protect minors: addictive design & screen time limits, rabbit hole effect, age verification, default privacy settings.”

The “rabbit hole effect” refers to algorithmic systems that may trigger behavioral addictions. The investigation will also look into whether TikTok provides a trustworthy database of advertisements on its app to enable scrutiny of potential threats.

“TikTok has pioneered features and settings to protect teens and keep under 13s off the platform,” a company spokesperson told Seeking Alpha. “We’ll continue to work with experts to keep young people on TikTok safe, and look forward to now having the opportunity to explain this work in detail to the Commission.”

Recall that last year, U.K.’s privacy regulator fined TikTok $16M for failing to protect children’s data.