On Monday 19 February, the European Commission announced the opening of an investigation into the social network TikTok for alleged breaches in the protection of minors, Ednews reports citing Le Monde.
This is the second procedure of its kind under the new European rules, following the one concerning X (formerly Twitter) opened in December.
The European Commission explained that it had opened "a formal procedure" to determine whether TikTok had breached the Digital Services Regulation (DSA). The European digital watchdog's concerns relate in particular to "the protection of minors", "the transparency of advertising", "access to data for researchers" as well as the "risks associated with the addictive design" of the platform and "harmful content".
"As a platform that reaches millions of children and teenagers, TikTok has a special role to play in protecting minors online", which is "one of the DSA's top priorities", said Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market.