The European Commission opened an investigation into the new app TikTok Lite this Monday and threatened to suspend the functionality of the Chinese social network that rewards screen time from Thursday due to the risk of increasing addiction.
Virtual currencies that can be converted into gift cards in exchange for watching videos. TikTok of the Chinese group ByteDance launched its controversial new service in France and Spain at the end of March.
The European Commission, which now plays the role of the EU’s digital police, believes the mechanism poses “serious risks to the mental health of users” by forcing people to stay connected, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
However, the platform did not submit a pre-launch risk assessment to Brussels, in line with its obligations under the new digital services legislation (DSA).
Therefore, the European chief executive is preparing to suspend the rewards program: “Before officially adopting it, TikTok had until April 24 to present its defense.”
“We are disappointed” with the opening of this procedure: the TikTok Lite rewards program is not available to minors under 18 and includes a daily limit on video views, a TikTok spokesperson told AFP. However, the group intends to “continue” negotiations” with Brussels.
The European Commission issued the first warning on April 17, asking the platform to provide an assessment of the risks associated with this deployment within 24 hours and detail the means implemented to mitigate them. But “TikTok did not provide the document on time,” the commission explained.
“Continuous streams of short, fast videos may seem funny, but they put our children at risk of addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and poor concentration,” warned European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton.
“We suspect that TikTok Lite is as toxic and addictive as light cigarettes,” he said, as quoted in the statement.
TikTok must submit a risk assessment report no later than Tuesday and answer additional questions by May 3.
In case of failure to respond in a timely manner, the Commission may impose fines of up to 1% of the group’s annual global turnover and sanctions of up to 5% of daily turnover.
TikTok Lite rewards users with “tokens” (cryptocurrency) if they log in daily for ten days, spend time watching videos (limited to 60–85 minutes per day), and perform certain actions such as liking videos and following creators content. . These coins can then be redeemed for gift cards on affiliate sites such as Amazon.
Thanks to short videos, TikTok, which has attracted more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, has been accused for years in the US and Europe of causing addictive behavior among teenagers.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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