Original Coverage & Source Attribution: iclg.com
The social media giant has been ordered to redesign its ‘For You’ feed to protect young and vulnerable users from continuous streams of harmful targeted content.
TikTok is under fire in the EU over the harmful design of its ‘For You’ feed, with the European Commission announcing last week (6 November) its preliminary findings that the social media giant breached the bloc’s Digital Services Act by designing a video recommender system that feeds users streams of potentially harmful content.
Following its investigation, the Commission said that vulnerable and young users are at risk of being exposed to “endless and repeated” cycles of content – the so-called ‘rabbit hole effect’ – relating to potentially triggering issues, including sadness, isolation or body image.
The Commission is concerned that repeated exposure to negative content could have “serious negative effects on users’ wellbeing”, including increased feelings of anxiety, sadness, low self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, as well as a worsening of eating disorders or mental conditions.
TikTok has been accused of failing to conduct adequate risk assessments, with the probe revealing that the recommender system will interpret repeated views or likes as positive signs of interest and push more of the same, regardless of whether that content might be harmful.
Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president of the European Commission for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement: “Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from. The Digital Services Act makes platforms responsible for addressing the negative effects related to their recommender system. Today’s preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users’ well-being, including those of minors.”
TikTok’s risk mitigation measures are also under scrutiny, with the Commission criticising the company for not doing enough to tackle the harmful impact of the ‘rabbit hole effect’. Measures to recommend diversified content have been found ineffective in reducing how often similar content is shown to users, while control tools such as the ‘not interested’ button are thought to have been overshadowed by the algorithm’s prioritisation of showing users content based on viewing time.
The Commission is now urging TikTok to change the design of its ‘For You’ feed, including by placing greater weight on users’ explicit preferences, stopping the use of viewing time as a content recommendation indicator, increasing the accessibility and usability of control tools, and regularly testing its algorithm.
If the Commission’s preliminary views are confirmed, TikTok may be handed a non-compliance decision, a move that could trigger a penalty of up to 6% of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover. TikTok has been offered the opportunity to exercise its right to defence.
The Commission has also adopted preliminary findings relating to TikTok’s addictive design and the protection of minors under the same proceedings.
Lisa Dittmer, a researcher on children and young people’s digital rights at Amnesty International, said the Commission’s preliminary finding “is a welcome and urgently needed step in the fight for accountability and safer online platforms”.
“It is time to fundamentally change social media: an industry whose major players’ business models are all too often purpose-built on the exploitation of people’s attention and vulnerabilities,” Dittmer continued. “Regulators must now go further through additional regulations to reverse the burden of proof and create binding standards for platform design to put an end to addictive and toxic feeds.”
In an emailed comment to ICLG News, a spokesperson for TikTok said: “The Commission has made a series of statements that are fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform’s architecture and our commitment to user safety. We have a strong record of protecting our community while giving users direct and intuitive control over their content experience.”
