The European Commission charged TikTok on Friday with breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to its addictive platform design. Regulators identified infinite scroll, autoplay videos, and the recommendation engine as features that foster compulsive behavior. These elements allegedly harm the physical and mental wellbeing of users, particularly minors.
Preliminary findings indicate TikTok failed to assess and mitigate these risks as the DSA requires. The Commission suggested the platform may need to disable features like infinite scroll to achieve compliance.
ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, faces potential fines of up to 6% of its global annual turnover if the charges are upheld. TikTok described the findings as a categorically false and meritless depiction of its platform.