TikTok suspended a gamification function within the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With consideration on TikTok’s rising pile of US authorized woes, the announcement went largely unnoticed when it occurred late native time Wednesday.
TikTok’s transfer got here simply two days after the EU opened an investigation right into a so-called “task and reward” mechanism on the TikTok Lite app, citing issues over an addictive design that might pose a psychological well being danger for younger folks. The function permits customers to earn factors for doing issues like watching and liking TikTok movies. ByteDance, TikTok’s mother or father, launched this model of TikTok Lite in France and Spain earlier this month.
Under the EU’s rebooted on-line governance and content material moderation rulebook, the Digital Services Act (DSA), TikTok has a authorized obligation to mitigate systemic dangers in areas like baby security and psychological well being. Yet it failed to supply a danger evaluation report on the function when the bloc’s enforcers got here knocking.
This is a giant deal as the corporate might face giant penalties below the DSA — of as much as 6% of its international annual turnover — if it’s discovered to have damaged the EU’s guidelines.
In a press release posted on X yesterday, TikTok claimed it’s “voluntarily suspending” the rewards function within the area to deal with issues. However, on Monday, the Commission signalled it was getting ready to drive TikTok’s hand, saying it was minded to make use of interim measures powers contained within the DSA to shut down the app whereas it conducts an investigation into the function.
The EU gave TikTok two days to supply arguments towards an enforced shutdown. In the occasion, TikTok opted to preempt enforcement by saying a “voluntary” suspension.
The improvement underlines how even the specter of interim enforcement can pack a punch that forces platform giants to rethink. (We’ve seen this type of factor earlier than in relation to related powers contained within the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation for instance — equivalent to a call by Google, again in 2019, to halt human evaluate of audio snippets captured by its voice AI after a knowledge safety authority had knowledgeable Google of an intention to make use of an urgency continuing to order it to cease processing the info.)
This acquainted disaster PR tactic goals to get forward of the detrimental publicity related to an enforced shutdown by taking motion forward of a proper order.
Nonetheless, the EU is taking the win: Responding to TikTok’s announcement with a counter publish on X, the bloc’s internal-market-commissioner-cum-internet-sheriff, Thierry Breton, warned: “Our children are not guinea pigs for social media.”
Breton went on to jot down that he “takes note” of TikTok’s suspension of the reward program for the Lite app within the EU, including: “The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue.”
TikTok was contacted for affirmation on the standing of the TikTok Lite app in France and Spain. As the identify suggests, TikTok Lite is an alternate TikTok app for customers who’ve older telephones or who largely connect with 2G or 3G networks.
The EU has two DSA probes open on TikTok: The first, introduced again in February, is wanting right into a broad sweep of suspected non-compliance in areas together with addictive design, baby safety, advertisements transparency and knowledge entry for researchers. The second, introduced earlier this week, is concentrated on TikTok Lite.
Still, Elon Musk-owned X was the primary very giant on-line platform to go below DSA investigation again in December, only a few months after the late August compliance deadline had kicked in. That investigation…
