This Friday, November 6, the European Union ordered the social network TikTok to modify its personalized video feeds, accused of harming the well-being and mental health of users by exposing them to spirals of content with very negative effects. The subsidiary of the Chinese group ByteDance, already in the crosshairs of Brussels, also risks being imposed a potentially heavy fine, because the European Commission considers that it may have violated key provisions of the European regulation on digital services (DSA).
In question, the very functioning of TikTok's content recommendation algorithm. Personalized video feeds (viewable in the “for you” section of the app) are designed to deliver again and again whatever type of content has piqued a user’s interest. Including, and this is the heart of the problem, when the videos focus on themes that can affect physical and moral well-being by watching them, such as sadness, loneliness, or self-esteem.
Brussels wants users to have more control
Locking yourself into uninterrupted and repeated viewing of such content (a phenomenon nicknamed “rabbit holes”) can have negative effects on mental health, warns the European Commission, particularly when it comes to vulnerable adults or minors.
The social network has already made changes to its personalized feeds, but Brussels believes that they are not sufficient. This is why the European executive is asking for a series of profound changes to TikTok, which go to the very heart of its business model aimed at capturing as much user attention as possible. This relates to how its algorithm selects the content shown.
In particular, the EU would like users to have more control over the videos recommended to them and for their preferences to be truly respected. Because Brussels deplores that currently, if an Internet user indicates that a certain type of content does not or no longer interests them, the TikTok algorithm can override this choice, with the aim of maximizing the time spent by the user on the platform.
Risk of hefty fines
Brussels could also, at the end of this procedure which results from an investigation launched in 2024, impose a fine on TikTok of up to 6% of its annual global turnover. Because the Commission suspects this social network of having committed an infringement of the DSA, which requires large online platforms to assess and mitigate the risks incurred by their users.
TikTok is already suspected of having committed other violations of this same regulation. The EU accused him in July of failing in his obligations to protect minors, creating risks of cyberharassment and exposure to possible predators. And Brussels had also asked it at the start of the year to remove several features from its interface considered far too “addictive”.
“Every time a user scrolls or “likes” a video on TikTok, the algorithm offers them more, leading them into spirals from which it is difficult for them to escape,” summarized the vice-president of the Commission in charge of Digital, Henna Virkkunen, for whom “these new preliminary injunctions show once again that TikTok must intensify its efforts to preserve the well-being of users, including that of minors”.
The EU is launched in a vast offensive to bring social networks into line, in application of the DSA, and presented in September a bill, the Kids Act, which aims to ban them to under 13s, due to numerous risks for their well-being and development. At the same time, the large platforms are facing extensive litigation in the United States, where thousands of families and school districts, as well as almost all states, accuse them of harming the mental health of young people. At the end of September, TikTok escaped the first lawsuit brought by an American state, at the cost of a series of commitments and a payment that could reach several hundred million dollars.
