In a landmark case in Europe, video platform TikTok has agreed to permanently remove a controversial feature that regulators say could be addictive and damage the mental health of young people.
In the first case to be closed under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the Chinese-owned company said it would indefinitely suspend the rewards programme on its “TikTok Lite” app, a less data intensive version of its main product that was launched in France and Spain earlier this year.
TikTok has also agreed not to relaunch the same rewards programme under another guise.
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At the same time, it has not admitted any infringement, nor will it face a fine, under what is being described as a “commitment” settlement under the DSA.
“The available brain time of young Europeans is not a currency for social media – and it never will be,” Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal market boss, said, announcing the agreement on Monday.
“We have obtained the permanent withdrawal of the TikTok Lite rewards programme, which could have had very addictive consequences. The DSA is in full swing.”
In April, the European Commission launched an investigation into whether the programme was leading to minors becoming hooked on the short-video platform.
The “Task and Reward Programme” allowed users to earn points by, for example, watching videos, liking content, following creators and inviting friends to join TikTok. The commission saw this as potentially “rewarding excessive screen time” among minors.
“The rewards programme, which may stimulate addictive behaviour, could potentially have negative effects on the physical and mental health of users. This is of particular concern for minors, who may have a heightened sensitivity to such features,” the commission said.
After the commission launched its investigation, TikTok suspended the programme in the two countries – France and Spain – where it was already up and running.
Commission sources said Brussels had worked closely on the case with regulators in those two countries, as well as in Ireland, home to TikTok’s European headquarters.
The sources said that while there was no admission of guilt from TikTok – owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance – they were pleased with how quickly the 105-day proceeding was concluded. Had the case gone to a trial, or had a fine been necessary, it would have been a longer process.
A separate DSA investigation, launched in February, remains open.
This inquiry is looking into whether the algorithm on TikTok’s main app may have been intentionally designed to create “rabbit-hole effects”, which lead to “behavioural addictions”.
TikTok is not the only Chinese-owned company in the cross hairs of Brussels’ digital regulators. Online marketplace AliExpress is also subject to an investigation, while fast-fashion retailer Shein was recently designated a “very-large online platform”, leaving it vulnerable to scrutiny in an area that has quickly become a new strain in tense EU-China ties.
AliExpress is owned by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post.
Chinese firms have also been targeted in a series of trade and competition inquiries, with long-standing grievances over Beijing’s economic policies leading to increasingly trigger-happy behaviour from EU watchdogs.
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, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2024 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
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