European Commission threatens to ban TikTok in Europe

The European Commission threatened this Thursday to ban the use of TikTok in the European Union unless those responsible for the social network prevent minors from accessing “potentially lethal” videos, EFE reported.

The threat was conveyed by European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton to a delegated adviser tik takThe Zi Chu Show, during a video conference.

According to the commissioner’s office, Thierry Breton told TikTok’s manager that more caution should be exercised with young people who use the social network, saying that “it is unacceptable that behind an apparently fun and harmless environment” users could easily access dangerous content. .

In this sense, the European Commissioner urged Show Tzu Chu to comply with European data protection rules, which, according to the new law on digital services, must be complied with by large platforms no later than September 1st.

This standard will oblige these platforms to eliminate illegal content and increase the transparency of the algorithms that determine what users can see on the Internet.

Failure to do so could result in Brussels imposing fines of 6% of the global turnover of these platforms and even banning them from permanent existence on the single market.

“We will not hesitate to apply these sanctions if our audits do not demonstrate full compliance,” said Thierry Breton, urging the TikTok CEO to apply the directive well in advance of September 1st.

The United States has also raised concerns about TikTok, as the US Congress has banned lawmakers and their officials from installing the app on their official phones.

The controversy in the US over the use of the Chinese app escalated after the revelation that ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, used the social network to “monitor the physical location of journalists through their IP addresses.”