EU regulators have declared that TikTok’s “addictive design” may put it in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA), in the preliminary results of an ongoing investigation into the social media app. If those findings are confirmed, TikTok could face a major fine and be required to “change the basic design of its service” in order to comply with the law.
The European Commission took particular issue with TikTok’s “infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and its highly personalised recommender system,” arguing that TikTok failed to implement proper safeguards to ensure the “addictive” features don’t “harm the physical and mental wellbeing of its users.”
“For example, by constantly ‘rewarding’ users with new content, certain design features of TikTok fuel the urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain of users into ‘autopilot mode’,” the Commission says in a press release. “Scientific research shows that this may lead to compulsive behaviour and reduce users’ self-control.”
The Commission suggests that TikTok’s existing parental controls and screen-time features are insufficient, and that TikTok may need to make them more effective, along with limiting infinite scroll and adapting its recommendation algorithm.
TikTok now has the chance to defend itself and its design before the investigation is concluded. If found guilty of violating the DSA, it could face a fine worth up to 6 percent of its worldwide annual turnover. The wide-ranging investigation was opened in February 2024, and has already found TikTok at fault for insufficient transparency in its advertising and its provision of public data to researchers.
“The Commission’s preliminary findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform,” an unnamed TikTok spokesperson told the Financial Times. “We will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us.”
It’s been a tumultuous start to the year for TikTok, which is finally under new ownership in the US, the transfer followed almost immediately by a weekend-long outage. Its new US owners have sparked fresh concerns about censorship and the design of the upcoming US-only algorithm, along with questions in Congress about whether its legal problems are truly resolved. Meanwhile, restrictions and bans on social media are increasingly popular among lawmakers worldwide, with Spain the latest country to propose blocking the apps from users under 16.
