Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design’ and Pushes for Change
#TikTok #European Union #Addictive Design #Social Media Regulation #ByteDance #Online Safety #Child Protection #Global Tech Scrutiny
📌 Key Takeaways
- European Union regulators accused TikTok of using 'addictive design' features that violate EU online safety laws.
- TikTok must overhaul its core features or face significant fines, marking the first global legal standard for social media addictiveness.
- The EU's decision comes amid growing global scrutiny of social media platforms, with similar lawsuits and regulatory efforts in the United States and other countries.
- European officials emphasized the need for platforms to be held accountable for their impact on users, particularly children and teens.
- ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, has faced challenges in the United States, recently striking a deal to create an American TikTok to address data privacy concerns.
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🏷️ Themes
Regulation, Technology, Child Safety, Global Scrutiny
📚 Related People & Topics
ByteDance
Chinese Internet technology company
ByteDance is a Chinese internet technology company headquartered in Haidian, Beijing. Its associated variable-interest entity ByteDance Ltd is incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Founded by Zhang Yiming, Liang Rubo, and a team of others in 2012, ByteDance developed the video-sharing app TikTok/Douyi...
TikTok
Video-focused social media platform
TikTok, known in mainland China, Macau, and Hong Kong as Douyin (Chinese: 抖音; pinyin: Dǒuyīn; lit. 'Shaking Sound'), is a social media and short-form online video platform. It hosts user-submitted videos, which range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes.
European Union
Supranational political and economic union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated population of more than 450 million as of 2025. The EU is often described as a sui generis ...
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Connections for ByteDance:
- 🌐 TikTok (1 shared articles)
📄 Original Source Content
Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Europe Accuses TikTok of ‘Addictive Design’ and Pushes for Change European Union regulators said the app’s infinite scroll and personalized algorithm led to “compulsive” behavior, especially among children. Listen to this article · 5:51 min Learn more Share full article 1 By Adam Satariano Reporting from London Feb. 6, 2026 Updated 7:06 a.m. ET TikTok’s endless scroll of irresistible content, tailored for each person’s tastes by a well-honed algorithm, has helped the service become one of the world’s most popular apps. Now European Union regulators say those same features that made TikTok so successful are likely illegal. On Friday, the regulators released a preliminary decision that TikTok’s infinite scroll, auto-play features and recommendation algorithm amount to an “addictive design” that violated European Union laws for online safety. The service poses potential harm to the “physical and mental well-being” of users, including minors and vulnerable adults, the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc’s executive branch, said in a statement. The findings suggest TikTok must overhaul the core features that made it a global phenomenon, or risk major fines. European officials said it was the first time that a legal standard for social media addictiveness had been applied anywhere in the world. “TikTok needs to change the basic design of its service,” the European Commission said in a statement. TikTok said it planned to challenge the findings “through every means available to us.” “The commission’s preliminary findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform,” the company said in a statement. TikTok and other social media companies are under mounting global pressure, including facing Big Tobacco -inspired lawsuits in the United States for hooking young users , and efforts in Denmark, France, Malaysia and Spain to bar younger teens from the platforms. Regulators acc...