The EU Commission on Monday announced that it has opened a second formal proceedings against TikTok under the Digital Services Act (DSA), following a weekend decision by the US House of Representatives to pass a measure that would require either the divestiture or ban of the Chinese-owned social media app in the United States within a year.

The latest proceedings in Brussels aim to assess whether the Chinese company may have breached the DSA when launching TikTok Lite in France and Spain.

According to an announcement by the Commission, under the DSA, designated “Very Large Online Platforms” are obliged to submit a risk assessment report, including measures to mitigate any potential systemic risks, prior to launching any new functionalities that are likely to have a critical impact on their systemic risks.

“The Commission is concerned that the ‘Task and Reward Program’ of TikTok Lite, which allows users to earn points while performing certain “tasks” on TikTok – such as watching videos, liking content, following creators, inviting friends to join TikTok, etc. – has been launched without prior diligent assessment of the risks it entails, in particular those related to the addictive effect of the platforms, and without taking effective risk mitigating measures. This is of particular concern for children, given the suspected absence of effective age verification mechanisms on TikTok. The lack of effective age verification mechanisms and the suspected addictive design of the platforms are already under investigation in the first formal proceedings against TikTok.”

This investigation will thus focus on the following areas:

  • TikTok’s compliance with the DSA obligation to conduct and submit a risk assessment report prior to deploying functionalities, in this case the “Task and Reward Lite” program, that are likely to have a critical impact on systemic risks. In particular negative effects on mental health, including minors’ mental health, especially as a result of the new feature stimulating addictive behavior.
  • The measures taken by TikTok to mitigate those risks.

The entire announcement is here:

Commission opens proceedings against TikTok under the DSA (europa.eu)