The EU launches investigation into TikTok: possible violations of the DSA on minors

There European Commission has started a formal proceeding in order to evaluate whether or not the well-known social network TikTok has violated the Digital Services Act. In particular, the proceeding is focusing on protection of minorstransparency of advertising, access to data for researchers, as well as the management of potentially harmful content.

Going into the details of the news, the European Commission is dedicating its attention to:

• Compliance with DSA obligations relating to the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks, in terms of negative effects actual or foreseeable arising from the design of TikTok’s system, including algorithmic systems, which can stimulate behavioral addictions and/or create so-called “rabbit hole effects“. This assessment is necessary to counter potential risks to the exercise of the fundamental right to physical and mental well-being from the person, respect for the rights of the child and its impact on radicalization processes. Furthermore, the mitigation measures in place in this regard, in particular the age verification tools used by TikTok to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content, may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective;
• Compliance with the obligations of the law in question on putting in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and protection for minorsin particular regarding the default privacy settings for minors as part of the design and operation of their recommendation systems;
• Compliance with obligations to provide a searchable and reliable registry for advertising on TikTok;
• The measures taken by TikTok to increase the transparency of its platform. The investigation concerns possible shortcomings in giving researchers access to TikTok’s publicly available data as required by Article 40 of the DSA.

Subsequently, the Commission will collect any evidence through interviews and checks.

At the same time, the opening of a formal proceeding authorizes the same to take further enforcement measures, such as provisional measures and non-compliance decisions. Finally, the Commission also has the right to accept any commitment made by TikTok to remedy the alleged critical issues at the center of the proceeding.