TikTok must make it clearer from the European Commission and European consumer protection organizations which content is advertising and which is not. The Chinese video platform has been taken to task over this. The social network has promised to take action.
So writes the European Commission in a press statement (1).
The EU executive, the European Bureau of Consumers' Unions (BEUC) and TikTok have been in talks for more than a year. The interest group of European consumers believes that the Chinese social network violates European consumer rules. For example, children are insufficiently protected from inappropriate content, and there is no clear distinction between commercial and non-commercial content.
In response to this complaint, the European Commission, together with the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC) and the Irish and Swedish Consumer Authorities, met with TikTok to discuss these issues. TikTok is taking the complaints seriously and will change course to better protect its youngest users.
For starters, users can report videos that might encourage or mislead children to buy products or services. Inappropriate products for children-such as alcohol, cigarettes or crypto currencies-will no longer be shown to children. Users who upload sponsored videos will be asked to tag them with hashtags such as #ad or #sponsored. And paid ads in videos will get a new label.
The CPC will monitor whether TikTok is complying with the new rules. National privacy regulators are checking that the new policies and practices do not violate the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and personal data is properly protected.
Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice, welcomes the agreements with TikTok. "All social media platforms must abide by the rules and ensure that commercial content, even if promoted by influencers, is easily recognizable as advertising to consumers," he said.
"We are pleased that TikTok has committed to making its operation more transparent. Thanks to our dialogue, consumers will be able to more easily recognize the different types of ads they see while visiting the platform as advertising. The fact that TikTok has made this commitment does not take away from the fact that we will continue to monitor the situation in the future, especially regarding the effects for young TikTok users."
Cateautje Hijmans van den Bergh, ACM board member, is also pleased with the agreements with TikTok. "We welcome the steps taken by TikTok. Together with our EU colleagues, we are monitoring the outcome and effectiveness of TikTok's commitments. This includes in any case the development by TikTok of a label that knows how to distinguish commercial content from other content, and the behavioral science research to substantiate the effectiveness of that label," she said.
TikTok has long been getting wind of its privacy policies. The Consumers Union and Take Back Your Privacy Foundation complained last year that the video platform "egregiously" abused young children to make "gross profits." The parties are demanding 2 billion euros in damages.
Mass Damage & Consumer Foundation accuses TikTok of collecting as much information as possible from users in order to create user profiles and present them with targeted ads. As such, the foundation believes compensation of 6 billion euros is appropriate. Finally, Market Intelligence Research Foundation (SOMI) wants TikTok to put 1.4 billion euros on the table because the social network does not comply with the transparency obligations of the AVG.
To reduce data flows and improve data storage, TikTok will store this information on servers in the Irish capital, Dublin, starting in early 2023. "TikTok is also committed to providing the European community with an entertaining and fun platform while protecting privacy and data. This large-scale expansion of our operations and staff are concrete steps that demonstrate what that commitment to Europe looks like in practice," said Elaine Fox, chief privacy officer at TikTok.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/nl/ip_22_3823
