Brussels opens a formal investigation into TikTok to analyze its protection of minors

The European Commission opened this Monday a formal investigation against TikTok to analyze whether you are sufficiently protecting minors and see if it is complying with new transparency requirements on the content moderation that Brussels requires of digital platforms.

The Community Executive already asked TikTok for information last September to see what measures it was taking in this regard and this Monday decided to open a formal investigation, as announced in a statement.

The digital services law that the European Union approved last year forces large internet companies to guarantee that their algorithmic systems you do not show harmful content to users and, specifically, Brussels wants to analyze to what extent the Chinese social network generates addictions.

In this sense, the Commission assured that the measures that TikTok uses to verify the age of its users and prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content “may not be reasonable, proportional or effective.”

The Community Executive also wants to analyze whether TikTok allows independent academics to access the operation of its algorithms and whether the platform has created a repository of the advertisements seen on the social network.

The Commission warned that it could take precautionary measures against the social network if it considered it necessary.