Tiktok Faces Threat Of Hefty Fines As EU Prepares Probe Over Risks To Minors
Date
2/11/2024 3:09:19 PM
(MENAFN- AzerNews) TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. faces the threat of hefty fines as
the European Union prepares a probe under its strict new content
moderation rules over concerns of risks to minors, Azernews reports, citing Al Arabiya.
The European Commission will open an investigation into TikTok
under the bloc's new Digital Services Act in the coming weeks,
people familiar with the matter said. The probe stems from concerns
that changes the company made to comply with the new regulations
aren't enough to protect underage users, according to the people,
who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are
private.
The DSA gives regulators unprecedented powers to take action
against major tech companies for how they handle content on their
platforms. Companies face fines of as much as 6 percent of annual
sales, or even risk being banned from the EU if they repeatedly
break the rules.
EU regulators in December opened their first formal probe under
the DSA into Elon Musk's X to establish possible breaches in the
way the platform handles illegal content and disinformation. The
bloc singled out 19 online platforms and search engines last year
as large entities worthy of scrutiny and has been quizzing them for
information. That includes X, Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.
and others with more than 45 million monthly active users in
Eu-rope. The EU has since also added three porn sites.
TikTok declined to comment on the matter but said it is in
“regular dialogue and hadn't received anything from the commission
about an investigation.” A representative for the commission
declined to comment. The discussions are still ongoing and the EU
may still decide against a full probe.
The EU has sent several requests for information to TikTok since
the platform was designated as a significant platform. That's
included inquiring about what steps it's taken to protect minors,
especially regarding the risks to mental health and physical
health, and how its services are used by children.
More investigations are likely to be added as the EU has been
quizzing all designated firms for more information over the last
few months. Similar to TikTok, Meta's Instagram has also been
quizzed by the EU on what changes it's made to comply with the new
rules and to assess and mitigate risks facing its underage
users.
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