TikTok's Addictive Nature Prompts EU to Remove a Key Feature
Many European countries have removed TikTok’s rewards program feature, stating that it adds to the social media app’s addictive nature. This rewards program is featured on the app TikTok Lite which was launched in 2018. The program grants points to adults for liking posts, watching videos, and inviting friends to join the app. This incentivizes people to use the app as much as possible. These points could be redeemed for TikTok coins to tip other users or, more enticingly, for Amazon vouchers. The latter proved to be a strong lure, keeping users engaged with the app for extended periods. For this reason, the European Union, totaling 27 countries, thought it made for an app that was too addictive.
The EU saw the company as irresponsible for neglecting to disclose the potential risks associated with using the rewards program after it was released in France and Spain earlier this year. The bloc wanted the company to explain how the rewards feature followed the EU’s Digital Service Act (DSA) and Tik-Tok failed to do so. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the platform, decided to simply suspend the feature, leading to it recently being permanently disabled in EU countries.
The DSA was put forth last year for people to be protected from illegal content, disinformation, targeted ads, and undesired algorithmic feeds such as content that could be considered offensive. Now companies behind popular social media apps are required to be transparent about how content and products are recommended by algorithms and how their features might contribute to addictive behavior.
Every platform in the EU with over 45 million users is required to abide by this law. So far, 19 platforms and search engines are among the entities that must comply. However, smaller companies or intermediaries such as web-hosting services and internet access providers will also have to follow the laws of the DSA, with a shorter list of requirements in their case.
The European Commission said in an official statement, “The Commission was concerned that the TikTok Lite Rewards programme had been launched without a prior diligent assessment of the risks it entails, particularly in relation to the addictive effect of the Rewards programme, and without taking effective risk mitigating measures.”
The bloc also expressed concern about the app’s addictive aspects and the impacts this could have on minors due to their “heightened sensitivity of such features.” Though the program does require users to be 18 or older, EU regulators doubted the effectiveness of the app in verifying ages.
This move by the EU reflects a broader trend of holding social media platforms accountable for the safety and well-being of young people online. Social media platforms have been pushed to protect young people online and other platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram have also been investigated for addictive features and privacy lapses. But this agreement is the first time that it has led to a ban and permanent removal.
This is not even the first time TikTok has had legal troubles, though. Recently in the United States, TikTok and ByteDance were sued for allegedly illegally collecting data on millions of Americans younger than 13. However, a TikTok spokesperson insisted that the accusations are baseless. A whole other set of formal proceedings were opened against TikTok on whether the app was addictive and its effectiveness on protecting users’ privacy. Only time will tell what else is in store from the regulations upheld by the EU, but it seems that its effect will extend beyond Europe.
