TikTok is one of the most popular social networks in many regions of the world. Among them, in the European Union, whose leaders are increasingly concerned about the relations of its parent company, ByteDance, with the Chinese government. This has led to the fact that in the United States the operation of the social network has already been blocked on most of the devices of the United States government. Nor can it be used anymore in the networks of many official organizations and even in universities. In addition, more and more people talk about one nationwide ban. something that too The EU is assessing if ByteDance does not comply with the current legality with TikTok.
At the moment, TikTok has until the 1st of next September to comply with the new Digital Services Act (DSA), according to Reuters. This implies that you will have to regulate the content that is published on the network, or risk a ban in the countries that make up the European Union. This has been confirmed by European Commissioner Thierry Bretono al TikTok CEO Shou Zhiin a telephone conversation that both have had.
The DSA is the new EU law for technology and social networks like TikTok. Among them are Meta and Twitter. These companies will have to take measures from now on to control the content that appears on their networks. Breton has indicated, in relation to the ban that threatens TikTok, that they will not hesitate «to adopt the full range of sanctions to protect our citizens if audits do not show full compliance«.
However, from TikTok they deny that there are possibilities that they will ban the activity of the social network in Europe for not complying with the rules of the DSA, and one of its spokespersons that neither party has discussed a ban on TikTok in Europe. In addition, he has pointed out that the company «fully commits to implement the provisions of the DSA«. Thus, it will continue to allocate resources to comply with the laws of the European Union «through greater transparency and accountability«.
It is not the only thing, however, that in the EU they reproach social networks. Not just TikTok. Thus, Thierry Breton has expressed through a post on LinkedIn, his concern about the dangers posed by current social networking apps.
In this case, he has spoken more generally of the features of TikTok, noting that”Some platforms, particularly popular among the younger generation, have gained massive popularity due to their short videos with engaging music, dance routines, and attention-grabbing visuals.«. It clearly refers to her, although there are several that are betting more and more on short videos of her in her content.
Apart from this, Breton has stressed that «The once good reputation of the platforms has collapsed due to various controversies«. Among them, he has alluded to “deadly challenges, cyber bullying, disinformation (especially from Russia), election rigging, promoting disordered eating habits, data leaks and use of the platform to spy on journalists«.
But that is not only what worries the EU. Breton has also indicated that he is concerned that TikTok collects data from local users that social networks send to other countries. He has not named TikTok, but has said those other countries can use social media user data for economic or political gain. Also to have more data to launch segmented advertising campaigns, as well as to politically manipulate the opinion of network users.
After voicing his concerns, Breton has offered further explanation of the DSA regulations and the timeframes social media will have to comply with. He has also stressed that there may be a temporary ban on the services of some networks in case they do not comply with the rules. In view of the deadlines that TikTok has, among others, to comply with the law, it is clear that it has plenty of time to do so and avoid its ban in the European Union. But we will have to see what steps he takes to achieve it.
