LONDON: TikTok has been criticized by the EU’s commissioner for internal market, Thierry Breton, over the spread of false information and harmful content on its platform.
The concerns relate in particular to content uploaded to the site in the aftermath of “Al-Aqsa Flood,” the name given by Hamas to its surprise attack on Israel last weekend. They echo similar criticisms leveled at social media sites X and Facebook.
Breton delivered an ultimatum to TikTok’s CEO, giving the platform a 24 hours to intensify its efforts to remove illegal, harmful and graphic content. Such action is required to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, which obliges major online platforms and search engines to implement additional measures to combat the sharing of illegal content and potential threats to public safety. Failure to adequately do so can be punished by fines of up to 6 percent of a business’s global revenue.
Breton issued his warning in a message posted on social media platform Bluesky, in which he voiced concern that TikTok was being used to spread illegal content and misleading information within the EU region, particularly following recent events involving Israel and Hamas.
He warned TikTok that because of its widespread popularity among children and teenagers, the platform has a special responsibility to shield its users from violent content. He also highlighted the inadequacy of the current measures that are in place to prevent graphic videos circulating extensively on the site.
Social media companies are facing intense scrutiny over the content appearing on their sites during current events, and EU officials have warned the platforms that they bear a significant degree of responsibility for the spread of false and damaging information.
Ian Bremmer, a leading expert on foreign policy, has said that the level of disinformation relating to the war between Israel and Hamas that is “being algorithmically promoted” on X “is unlike anything I’ve ever been exposed to in my career as a political scientist.”
Linda Yaccarino, the managing director of X, said on Thursday that her company is taking action to address such concerns by deleting numerous user accounts linked to Hamas and implementing measures designed to filter tens of thousands of content items.
The following day, however, the EU said it was launching an investigation into X in response to “indications received concerning the presumed transmission of illicit content.”
X has until Oct. 18 to respond to the most urgent questions posed by the 40-page EU document detailing the concerns, and until Oct. 31 to answer its less pressing requests for information.
