The European Commission on Friday accused TikTok of breaching EU digital rules, setting out preliminary charges that it said center on so-called “addictive design” features that can drive compulsive use by children. The commission said it concluded after a two-year investigation that TikTok has not assessed enough how tools built into the app—such as autoplay and infinite scroll—could harm users’ physical and mental health, including minors and “vulnerable adults.”
At a press briefing in Brussels, Thomas Regnier, a spokesman for the European Commission, said the regulator believes TikTok’s features lead to “the compulsive use of the app, especially for our kids,” and that this creates “major risks to their mental health and wellbeing.” Regnier also said “The measures that TikTok has in place are simply not enough,” and argued TikTok’s design encourages users to keep watching by continuously rewarding them with new content, which he said can reduce self-control.
The commission said it believes TikTok does not adequately address signs that someone may be compulsively using the platform, including minors spending time on TikTok at night and how often the app is opened. The commission said existing controls are easy to dismiss because they “introduce limited friction,” while it said parental tools require “additional time and skills” from parents. It also said that TikTok’s time management controls fall short of “reasonable, proportionate and effective” measures to offset risks it identified.
In a response, TikTok denied the accusations. In a statement, the company said: “The Commission’s preliminary findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us.”
The European Commission said it believes TikTok should change the “basic design” of its service, and listed specific changes it wants. Those include disabling features like infinite scroll, providing more effective screen-time breaks including at night, and altering TikTok’s “highly personalized” recommender system, which the commission said feeds users an endless stream of video shorts based on their preferences.
Regnier said the regulator is concerned about how much TikTok is used by children in the EU, citing what he described as commission figures that TikTok has 170 million users in the bloc and that “most of these are children.” He added that 7% of children aged 12 to 15 spend four to five hours daily on TikTok and that it is “by far” the platform most used after midnight by children aged 13 to 18, citing unspecified data. Regnier said “These statistics are extremely alarming.”
Under the Digital Services Act, the commission warned TikTok now has a chance to respond to the preliminary findings. Regnier said if TikTok does not address the concerns properly, Brussels could issue a non-compliance decision and a possible fine worth up to 6% of the company’s total annual revenue. He said there was no deadline specified for when the commission would make a final decision.
The preliminary charges come as governments and courts in multiple countries face pressure to tackle youth addiction to social media. The AP report said Australia has banned social media for under-16s, and that governments in countries including Spain, France, Britain, Denmark, Malaysia and Egypt want to introduce similar measures. In the United States, TikTok last month settled a landmark social media addiction lawsuit, while Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube still face claims in a case that has alleged platforms deliberately addict and harm children.