addictive design violates EU guidelines | EUROtoday

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BRUSSELS – At a time when some European nations have determined to tighten the screws and prohibit the usage of social networks by younger individuals, the European Commission introduced at present, Friday 6 February, that the Chinese firm TikTok has violated the principles of the Digital Services Act, selecting mechanisms and particularities that trigger dependancy within the consumer, particularly the youthful one. The resolution confirms that the European Union has raised the bar towards giant digital teams.

«Addiction to social networks can have dangerous results on the psychological improvement of kids and adolescents. The Digital Services Act makes platforms liable for the results they could have on their customers. In Europe, we apply our laws to guard our youngsters and our residents on-line,” European Commission Vice President Henna Virkkunen explained in a statement, referring to community rules that will come into full force in 2024.

Brussels points the finger at some specificities of the Chinese application: the infinite scrolling of images or videos, automatic playback, notifications and its highly personalized recommendation system. “The investigation preliminarily indicates that TikTok did not adequately evaluate how these addictive features could harm the physical and mental well-being of its users.”

According to the European Commission, «TikTok appears to be failing to implement reasonable, proportionate and effective measures to mitigate the risks arising from an addictive application design». Parental controls, the community executive notes, are complicated to introduce into the application. Likewise, time management mechanisms do not appear to be sufficiently effective in the eyes of the European Commission.

The Chinese firm will now be capable to consider the outcomes of the neighborhood investigation and probably train its rights of defence. If Brussels’ opinions are confirmed, the European Commission could publish a non-compliance resolution which can lead to a sanction proportional to the character, severity, recurrence and length of the infringement, which can attain as much as 6% of TikTok’s annual worldwide turnover.