The European Commission has charged TikTok with breaching the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), alleging that the platform's design features could expose children to predators or cyberbullying — the fourth allegation against ByteDance's social media platform in two years.
The charges, called preliminary findings under the DSA, specifically target TikTok's default settings for minors. The Commission said TikTok allows children to make their account public, enabling others to view their content and potentially exposing them to cyberbullying or contact from abusers.
Even private accounts are not fully safe, the regulator found, as children can be easily found through the 'following' and 'followers' lists of other users — even by people without a TikTok account.
The EU tech enforcer demanded that TikTok adjust default settings so minors' content is by default only visible to TikTok users accepted by the children themselves.
"The Digital Services Act requires platforms to build protections for minors into the design of their services, and holds them to account when they fail to do so," said EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen. "A high level of protection should not be an opt-in; it should be the default."
TikTok can now review the Commission's documents and respond before the watchdog issues a final decision. That decision could include a fine of up to 6% of TikTok's global annual turnover.
TikTok said it would review the findings and work constructively with the regulator. The company noted that teen accounts have more than 50 preset privacy and safety features, and that under-18 accounts are private by default.
