European Union: Launched EU Commission formal investigation into TikTok’s compliance with the DSA

On 19 February 2024, the European Commission announced it had initiated formal proceedings to investigate TikTok's compliance with the Digital Services Act (DSA) regarding protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and risk management of addictive design and harmful content. In particular, the Commission will investigate whether the company complies with the DSA obligations on assessment and mitigation of systemic risks associated to behavioral addiction since the age verification tools implemented by TikTok may be insufficient. The Commission will also assess whether the company's default privacy settings adequately protect the privacy, safety and security for minors. In addition, it will investigate whether TokTok provides a searchable and reliable repository for advertisements. Finally, the Commision will determine whether TikTok provides researchers with access to the company's publicly accessible data, as required by the DSA.