European Union regulators have told TikTok that it must change its “addictive design” within Europe otherwise it could face tens of billions in fines for breaching the EU Digital Services Act.
In the preliminary findings of an inquiry that began two years ago, the European Commission said that TikTok did not “adequately assess” the negative impact certain design features in its app could have on the wellbeing of users, including children.
In a statement, the Commission proposed some changes TikTok could make to its app that would address these issues, including “disabling key addictive features such as infinite scroll”, “implementing effective ‘screen time breaks’ including during the night”, and “adapting its recommender system”.
EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen added in her own statement that the EU’s Digital Services Act “makes platforms responsible for the effects they can have on their users” and as a result TikTok will have to “change the design of its service in Europe”.
TikTok now has an opportunity to respond to the Commission’s findings. It intends to strongly reject those findings, telling reporters that the Commission’s report includes a “categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform”.
However, if it fails to successfully oppose the Commission’s preliminary findings, TikTok will almost certainly make at least some of the changes proposed by EU officials, otherwise it could face a fine of up to 6% of its total global annual turnover - which is estimated to be in the tens of billions.
Other social media and user-generated content platforms will be following the case closely, given the likes of Instagram and YouTube have, to an extent at least, based their own short-form video feeds on TikTok's app, and may have to make similar changes to their own platforms.