The European Union has announced threats, to ban a new service launched by TikTok in the continent.
According to the Union, it believed that the new service could be as comparably “addictive as cigarettes.”
It had also urged the TikTok company to offer convincing fresh evidence that children would be protected.
This threat is a new one from the EU. It would mean that it is using sweeping new powers to impose sanctions on social media companies.
Note that the EU Digital Service Act (DSA) came into force in August 2023.
According to the Guardian UK, the EU had given TikTok until Wednesday to “bring arguments in its defence which the commission will carefully look into.”
Thierry Breton, the Union’s digital commissioner had said that the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform had “failed to prove” that TikTok Lite, (an app that gives rewards to users for watching clips) consented to the obligations under the act, describing the service as “toxic”.
This reward feature is now on the line and faces suspension in the bloc if the company fails to provide a good enough response to regulators’ concerns about the impact on users’ mental health.
Breton had said that the company went on to launch the app in France and Spain this month despite the fact that it was being investigated by the DSA over concerns of children’s protection.
Breton had also said that TikTok was now used by millions of children in Europe and the commission would leave no stone unturned in an attempt to protect them.
TikTok’s new watch-and-get-rewarded application offers users prizes such as Amazon vouchers, gift cards via PayPal or TikTok’s Coins currency for points earned through “tasks”, and they include watching videos, liking content, following creators or inviting friends to join.
