by Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has given ByteDance-owned TikTok 24 hours to provide a risk assessment of its new TikTok Lite app, launched this month in France and Spain, due to concerns about its impact potential on children and the mental health of users.
This decision taken by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Industry, under the Digital Services Regulation (DSA), comes two months after the opening of an investigation into TikTok concerning possible infringements of the DSA.
The Digital Services Act requires businesses to work to combat illegal and harmful content on their platforms. Violations are punishable by fines of up to 6% of the offender’s overall annual turnover.
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The Commission said on Wednesday it had sent a request for information to TikTok, asking for more details on the risk assessment the social media company should have carried out before rolling out TikTok Lite in Europe.
“This concerns the potential impact of the new ‘Task and Reward Lite’ program on the protection of minors, as well as on the mental health of users, particularly with regard to the potential stimulation of addictive behavior,” said the European Commissioner in a document consulted by Reuters.
The Commission also requested details of the measures put in place by the company to mitigate systemic risks.
“TikTok must provide the risk assessment for TikTok Lite within 24 hours and other requested information by 26 April 2024, after which the Commission will analyze TikTok’s response and assess the next steps,” the document states. .
(Report by Foo Yun Chee; French version by Alban Kacher, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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