Brussels threatens to suspend “addictive” rewards from the TikTok Lite application “as of Thursday”

The European Commission intends to fight against a controversial new service from the Chinese group ByteDance, which rewards time spent in front of screens since the end of March in France and Spain.

Gift cards in exchange for watching videos. Brussels intends to fight against this controversial new service from the Chinese group ByteDance, with the opening of an investigation on Monday April 22 targeting the new TikTok Lite application. The European Commission is thus threatening to suspend from Thursday the functionality of the Chinese social network, which rewards time spent in front of screens, at the risk of increasing addiction.

TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, unveiled this new service in France and Spain at the end of March. The European Commission, which acts as digital policeman in the European Union, believes that the mechanism poses “serious risks for the mental health of users”. However, the platform did not communicate to Brussels, before its launch, a risk assessment, in accordance with its obligations under the new digital services legislation (DSA).

“A deadline until April 24” granted to TikTok

This is why the European executive is preparing to impose a suspension of the rewards program. Before formally adopting it, TikTok was given a deadline. The platform can “submit the report until April 24″ And “provide arguments for your defense”. A TikTok spokesperson contacted by AFP said “disappointed” of the opening of this procedure, arguing that the TikTok Lite rewards program “is not accessible to those under 18 and includes a daily limit for viewing videos”.

The European Commission issued a first warning on April 17, asking the platform to provide within 24 hours an assessment of the risks linked to this deployment and to detail the means implemented to reduce them. But “TikTok did not provide the document on time”, explained the Commission.

The platform must provide its risk assessment report by Tuesday at the latest and answer other questions by May 3. In the absence of a timely response, the Commission may impose fines of up to 1% of the group’s annual global turnover and penalties of up to 5% of daily turnover.