TikTok social media – Photo by cottonbro on Pexels
(BRUSSELS) – The European Commission opened a second formal proceedings against TikTok Monday, to assess whether it may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) on launching TikTok Lite in France and Spain.
Under the DSA, designated Very Large Online Platforms have to submit a risk assessment report, including measures to mitigate any potential systemic risks, prior to launching any new functionalities that are likely to have a critical impact on their systemic risks.
The Commission says it is concerned that TikTok Lite’s “Task and Reward Program”, which allows users to earn points while performing certain “tasks” on TikTok – such as watching videos, liking content, following creators, inviting friends to join TikTok, etc. – has been launched without prior diligent assessment of the risks it entails, in particular those related to the addictive effect of the platforms, and without taking effective risk mitigating measures.
This is of particular concern for children, given the suspected absence of effective age verification mechanisms on TikTok. The lack of effective age verification mechanisms and the suspected addictive design of the platforms are already under investigation in the first formal proceedings against TikTok.
If proven, these failures would constitute infringements of Articles 34 and 35 of the DSA. The Commission will now carry out an in-depth investigation as a matter of priority. The opening of formal proceedings does not prejudge its outcome.
In addition, the Commission has sent TikTok a formal request for information, based on a Commission decision, compelling the company to provide a reply to its request for information of 17 April 2024. In particular, the Commission had requested TikTok to provide by 18 April the risk assessment report for TikTok Lite, as well as information about the measures the platform has put in place to mitigate potential systemic risks of these new functionalities. TikTok failed to provide such document within the deadline.
TikTok now has until 23 April to submit the risk assessment report to the Commission and until 3 May to provide the other information requested.
EU Official Journal text on the DSA
Very large online platforms and search engines under the DSA
