US EditionFact Check Team: EU charges TikTok for breaking rules, being too addictive
EU regulators say TikTok's infinite scroll and autoplay features may drive compulsive use, risking mental health and child safety under the Digital Services Act.
- This week, European Commission regulators opened a preliminary probe into TikTok, saying some design features may encourage addictive use patterns, especially for younger users, and TikTok can respond before any final decision.
- Under the Digital Services Act, very large online platforms must assess and mitigate systemic risks, including mental-health and child-safety issues, as European regulators focus on platform design.
- Commission officials flagged infinite scroll, autoplay and highly personalized recommendation systems as features that may reinforce compulsive use, while researchers studying platform design highlight similar risks.
- Regulators could impose both financial penalties and mandated design alterations if companies found non-compliant, including fines of up to 6% of global annual revenue and required changes to reduce compulsive use.
- Researchers caution that social media use is not a formal clinical diagnosis, unlike WHO-recognized gaming disorder, highlighting nuanced scientific debates.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Endless scrolling on social media could come to an end if the European Union succeeds in setting new design requirements in its dispute with Tiktok that would also apply to other major social media platforms, writes Politico.
In Los Angeles, Meta and Google are on trial, in the EU, TikTok has to sharpen up. In both cases, it's about their addictive design. This points to a better way to protect children and young people: fighting causes instead of bans. A comment. It takes something else to protect children. And adults too. – Publicly released by unsplash.com Photo by George Pagan III on Unsplash"I paint the world as I like it." – So far, the platform operators behin…
The major social media companies such as TikTok, Meta and Google currently have to deal with the accusation of a possible risk of addiction through their platforms on several fronts. The procedures that have been launched recently in Brussels and the USA are not about the social media content itself, but about product design – and with endless scrolling about a function that users of the social media platforms probably know very well.
The European Commission has launched a precedent-setting case against TikTok over so-called “doomscrolling” and other addictive design solutions. Brussels says infinite scrolling and algorithmic recommendation systems pose a risk to the mental health of young people in particular, Portfolio reports.
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