Kamal Ghorui
TikTok is facing new problems in Europe. The Chinese social media app’s addictive design elements have led the European Commission to find it in violation of the Digital Services Act. This includes its highly customised recommender system, autoplay, push notifications, and infinite scroll. The results are comparable to those of lawsuits against TikTok filed in 2024 by more than a dozen US states and the District of Columbia. At the time, the US states claimed that the social media company was damaging young people’s mental health by making its service highly addictive.According to the European Commission’s investigation, TikTok failed to sufficiently evaluate the potential harm that these addictive features could cause to its users’ physical and mental health, including children and vulnerable adults. As per scientific studies, providing users with fresh content regularly can trigger design elements that encourage scrolling and put the brain in automatic mode, which may result in compulsive behaviour and a loss of self-control.The Commission’s formal proceedings to assess TikTok’s compliance with the Digital Services Act began on February 19, 2024, and it includes these preliminary findings. The investigation examined the ‘rabbit hole effect’ of TikTok’s recommender systems, the possibility that children may encounter age-inappropriate content, the obligations minors have regarding privacy and security, the availability of public data for researchers, and the transparency of advertising.Commenting on the latet TikTok findings, Henna Virkkunen, European Commission’s Executive VP for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said, “Social media addiction can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and teens. The Digital Services Act makes platforms responsible for the effects they can have on their users. In Europe, we enforce our legislation to protect our children and our citizens online.”
Read what EU said about TIkTok’s ‘addictive design’
In a blog post, the European Commission wrote, “Today, the European Commission preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design. This includes features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and its highly personalised recommender system.Risk assessmentThe Commission’s investigation preliminarily indicates that TikTok did not adequately assess how these addictive features could harm the physical and mental wellbeing of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults.For example, by constantly ‘rewarding’ users with new content, certain design features of TikTok fuel the urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain of users into ‘autopilot mode’. Scientific research shows that this may lead to compulsive behaviour and reduce users’ self-control.Additionally, in its assessment, TikTok disregarded important indicators of compulsive use of the app, such as the time that minors spend on TikTok at night, the frequency with which users open the app, and other potential indicators.Risk mitigation measuresTikTok seems to fail to implement reasonable, proportionate and effective measures to mitigate risks stemming from its addictive design.For example, the current measures on TikTok, particularly the screentime management tools and parental control tools, do not seem to effectively reduce the risks stemming from TikTok’s addictive design. The time management tools do not seem to be effective in enabling users to reduce and control their use of TikTok because they are easy to dismiss and introduce limited friction. Similarly, parental controls may not be effective because they require additional time and skills from parents to introduce the controls.At this stage, the Commission considers that TikTok needs to change the basic design of its service. For instance, by disabling key addictive features such as ‘infinite scroll’ over time, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks’, including during the night, and adapting its recommender system.These preliminary findings do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.The Commission’s preliminary views are based on an in-depth investigation that included an analysis of TikTok’s risk assessments reports, internal data and documents and TikTok’s responses to multiple requests for information, a review of the extensive scientific research on this topic, and interviews with experts in multiple fields, including behavioural addiction.Next stepsTikTok now has the possibility to exercise its right to defence. It may examine the documents in the Commission’s investigation files and reply in writing to the Commission’s preliminary findings. In parallel, the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted.If the Commission’s views are ultimately confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision, which can trigger a fine proportionate to the nature, gravity, recurrence and duration of the infringement and reach up to but not more than 6% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the provider.BackgroundThe Commission’s preliminary findings today are part of its formal proceedings to investigate TikTok’s compliance with the Digital Services Act, launched on 19 February 2024. As well as addictive design, this investigation covers the ‘rabbit hole effect’ of TikTok’s recommender systems, the risk of minors having an age-inappropriate experience due to a misrepresentation of their age, the platforms’ obligations to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors.The investigation also included access to public data for researchers, for which preliminary findings were adopted in October 2025, and advertising transparency, which was closed through binding commitments in December 2025.”
