In a landmark case in Europe, video platform TikTok has agreed to permanently remove a controversial feature that regulators say can be addictive and harmful to young people’s mental health.
In the first case settled under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the Chinese company said it would indefinitely suspend the rewards program on its “TikTok Lite” app, a lower-data version of its flagship product that launched in France and Spain earlier this year.
TikTok has also pledged not to relaunch the rewards program under a different name.
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At the same time, the company has not admitted any wrongdoing and will not be fined, under what is described as an “undertaking” settlement under the DSA.
“The available thinking time of young Europeans is not a currency for social media – and it never will be,” said Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal market director, as he announced the deal on Monday.
“We have obtained the permanent revocation of the TikTok Lite rewards program, which could have had highly addictive consequences. The DSA is in full swing.”
In April, the European Commission launched an investigation into whether the programme led to minors becoming addicted to the short video platform.
The “Task and Reward Programme” allowed users to earn points by watching videos, liking content, following creators and inviting friends to join TikTok, among other things. The commission saw this as a potential “reward for excessive screen time” among minors.
“The rewards scheme, which may encourage addictive behaviour, could potentially have negative effects on the physical and mental health of users. This is particularly worrying for minors, who may be more sensitive to such features,” the commission said.
After the commission launched its investigation, TikTok suspended the program in the two countries – France and Spain – where it was already active.
According to Commission sources, Brussels has been working closely with regulators in those two countries and with Ireland, where TikTok’s European headquarters are located.
The sources said there was no admission of guilt from TikTok – owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance – but that they were pleased with how quickly the 105-day process was concluded. If the case had gone to court, or if a fine had been required, it would have been a longer process.
A separate DSA investigation, launched in February, is ongoing.
This study examines whether TikTok’s main app algorithm is intentionally designed to create “rabbit hole effects” that lead to “behavioral addictions.”
TikTok isn’t the only Chinese company in the sights of Brussels’ digital regulators. Online marketplace AliExpress is also under investigation, while fast-fashion retailer Shein was recently deemed a “very large online platform”, leaving it vulnerable to scrutiny in an area that has quickly become a new tension in tense EU-China relations.
AliExpress is owned by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
Chinese companies are also the target of a series of trade and competition investigations, as long-standing grievances over Beijing’s economic policies are prompting increasingly aggressive behaviour from EU regulators.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP Facebook page and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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