The app of the Chinese giant ByteDance will have to respond to the accusations raised by Europe regarding the violation of consumer rights and the lack of protection of the under 18s in front of hidden advertising
TikTok, the Chinese short video sharing app, will have one month to respond to multiple complaints from EU consumer groups that it violated user protection laws and also failed to protect children. From hidden advertising and inappropriate content.
Owned by China’s ByteDance, TikTok has seen rapid growth around the world, particularly among teenagers. However, a number of “incidents” have raised concerns about its privacy and security policies.
Formal dialogue with the company started
The European Commission on Friday said it has initiated a formal dialogue with TikTok and national consumer groups to review the company’s business practices and policy.
The European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said that the increased digitization caused by Covid-19 pandemic has created new risks, particularly for vulnerable consumers. “In the European Union, it is forbidden to target children and minors with advertisements disguised as banners in videos,” he said in a statement.
The “call to order” of the Italian Guarantor
The story follows the similar situation that occurred in Italy in recent weeks. Urged by the intervention of the Guarantor for the protection of personal data, the Chinese app had had to implement measures to protect minors: measures that, however, the Guarantor finally considered “not yet sufficient given the importance of the interests at stake”.
“Between 9 February, the start of the block imposed by the Guarantor, and 21 April, more than 12 and a half million Italian users were asked to confirm that they were over 13 years old to access the platform and there were over 500 thousand users removed because they were likely to be under the age of 16: about 400 thousand because they declared an age under 13 and 140 thousand through a combination of moderation and reporting tools implemented within the app “. The Guarantor therefore asked TikTok to field a series of further interventions in order to keep the under-12s off the platform.
