TikTok is to make changes to comply with strict new EU rules, the video-sharing platform announced on Friday.
As a result, European users will now be able to turn off automatic content display, allowing them to stop receiving personalised video recommendations that critics say are addictive.
TikTok will, in fact, allow users to turn off the 'For You' feature, which allows people to watch videos based on their personal interests. Instead, they will see videos that are popular globally or near where they live.
No more adds targeting minors
The social network owned by Chinese company ByteDance has also announced that it will now be easier for European users to report illegal content. Users under the age of 17, meanwhile, will no longer see targeted ads from now on.
TikTok also says it will be more transparent about its content moderation decisions, providing more details about why a video has been removed.
“We will continue to not only meet our regulatory obligations, but also strive to set new standards through innovative solutions,” the group said.
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Better protection against misinformation
The new European regulation on digital services, the Digital Services Act (DSA), aims to better protect users’ privacy and ensure better protection, particularly for children, against misinformation, advertising and harmful content.
The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, had given the Chinese company until September to adjust its policy. Last month, he reprimanded TikTok, urging it to “speed up” its work to comply with new EU rules against disinformation and online hate from the end of August. “At the end of August, we will assess whether real and tangible changes have been made,” he had warned.
Thanks to algorithms based on artificial intelligence, TikTok has quickly become very popular with young people and now has more than a billion users.
Amazon, Google and co. have until September to comply with DSA
In Europe, where it has 125 million users, and in the United States, however, the platform is viewed with suspicion because the application is owned by a Chinese company.
ByteDance has always maintained that it is not under the control of Beijing.
Companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, X (formerly Twitter) and Wikipedia must also comply with DSA rules by September.
