TikTok is now topic to not one, however two Digital Providers Act (DSA) investigations. The European Union introduced on Tuesday that it has opened a proper continuing targeted on election dangers, particularly within the context of latest elections in Romania.
The probe will deal with TikTok’s recommender techniques, principally “dangers linked to the coordinated inauthentic manipulation or automated exploitation of the service,” per the Fee. The EU may also have a look at TikTok’s insurance policies on political commercials and paid-for political content material.
“As regards each parts, one of many suspicions the Fee goes to research is whether or not TikTok has diligently mitigated the dangers posed by particular regional and linguistic facets of nationwide elections,” the physique stated in a press launch.
The transfer follows a knowledge retention order the EU despatched to TikTok earlier this month as considerations swirled about election interference on the short-video platform after a shock first spherical end in Romania’s presidential election.
That retention order coated nationwide elections within the EU spanning a greater than four-month interval — from November 24 till March 31, 2025 — underscoring the scope of the Fee’s alarm as it really works to implement the DSA on a significant platform.
The pan-EU on-line governance framework has, since late August 2023, required bigger platforms like TikTok to evaluate and mitigate a variety of dangers which will come up on their companies — together with dangers to election safety and democratic processes. Failure to take action may result in penalties of as much as 6% of world turnover.
Whereas no DSA fines have been issued on any platforms thus far, again in the summer time TikTok agreed to some product adjustments which closed an earlier Fee investigation into addictive design considerations. And the bloc’s lawmakers are clearly eager for the regulation to maneuver the needle by truly lowering dangers for net customers.
Declassified intelligence studies
Within the case of the electoral course of in Romania, nonetheless, the other seems to be true: declassified paperwork from a number of authorities companies recommend TikTok failed to stop faux accounts from getting used to artificially enhance and algorithmically amplify content material selling a pro-Russian, far-right candidate within the first spherical of voting for the presidency. The nation’s prime courtroom has since annulled the end result.
The Fee stated the choice to open an investigation on TikTok’s method to election safety in Romania takes under consideration info obtained from declassified intelligence studies by authorities authorities and “third-party” studies.
“The investigation additionally follows the evaluation of the danger evaluation studies submitted by TikTok in 2023 and 2024, the replies to the Fee’s requests for info, and inside paperwork supplied by TikTok,” the EU added, referencing a raft of knowledge requests DSA enforcers have despatched the corporate because the regulation’s guidelines for very massive on-line platforms (aka VLOPs) started to use final yr.
Whereas it stays to be seen what the result of this newest continuing shall be, the opening of a proper continuing unlocks extra enforcement powers, corresponding to the power to challenge interim measures if it feels dangers are urgent.
The significance the bloc is attaching to this newest investigation is signaled by the inclusion of a press release by the EU’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, herself, who wrote: “We should defend our democracies from any type of overseas interference. At any time when we suspect such interference, particularly throughout elections, we’ve to behave swiftly and firmly.”
“Following critical indications that overseas actors interfered within the Romanian presidential elections by utilizing TikTok, we at the moment are completely investigating whether or not TikTok has violated the Digital Providers Act by failing to deal with such dangers. It must be crystal clear that within the EU, all on-line platforms, together with TikTok, should be held accountable,” von der Leyen added.
In barely extra emollient remarks, Henna Virkkunen, the bloc’s new EVP for Tech Sovereignty, Safety and Democracy, stated she “look[s] ahead to working intently with TikTok to handle any considerations which will come up.”
Reached for a response, TikTok spokesman Elliott Burton despatched a press release by which the corporate claimed: “We’ve protected the integrity of our platform by over 150 elections around the globe and proceed proactively addressing these industry-wide challenges. TikTok has supplied the European Fee with in depth info relating to these efforts, and we’ve transparently and publicly detailed our sturdy actions.”
“We don’t settle for paid political commercials, we proactively take away content material for violating our insurance policies on misinformation, harassment and hate speech, and proceed to work with the European Fee in addition to regional and nationwide authorities to handle requests and talk about considerations,” TikTok added.
Relating to the Romanian elections particularly, the corporate claims it detected and disrupted 5 small covert networks focusing on the election — publishing particulars of what it discovered right here. It additionally claims to have eliminated “tons of of hundreds” of faux accounts and “thousands and thousands” of faux likes and followers. TikTok additionally suggests it has responded promptly to content-related requests from authorities beneath Romanian legal guidelines thus far and says it continues to take action.
