TikTok: Opening of an investigation in Spain for the distribution of child pornography content

The Spanish prosecution takes action. An investigation was opened on Wednesday into the alleged dissemination of child criminal content on TikTok, after a complaint filed by the Maldita.es association. A magistrate has been appointed to “investigate possible offenses linked to the production and dissemination of content of sexual abuse of minors and corruption of minors which could have been committed on the social network TikTok,” the prosecution said in a press release.

On Monday, Maldita.es published an investigation in which the association claimed to have discovered more than 1,000 explicit videos of sexual assault against children on the platform. This content would have accumulated 48 million views.

According to the association, which had already investigated the subject twice, TikTok only removed 10% of reported content and blocked only 26% of illegal content in Spain. The investigations also made it possible to identify more than 26,000 profiles of potential child criminals exchanging or selling sexual assault material on the platform, including 7,700 operating in Spanish.