EU says TikTok’s recommender ‘rabbit holes’ breach Digital Services Act
The European Commission on Friday issued preliminary findings that TikTok’s engagement-driven recommendation algorithms breach the Digital Services Act, the first time Brussels has treated a social network’s recommender systems themselves as a DSA violation. Officials said the feeds send users down “rabbit holes”: a continuous stream of personalised videos that can keep serving material on mental health struggles and body image. Under the DSA, fines can reach 6 percent of annual worldwide turnover. This is the fifth separate allegation that Chinese-owned TikTok has broken EU platform rules; the Commission has not fined it so far.
Investigators focused on mental-health harms because the evidence there was strongest, an official said when asked about rabbit holes and radicalisation. The Commission’s case is that the more users interact with content—even potentially harmful content—the more of it they are shown, and that TikTok’s existing steps to curb that effect have not worked. A Commission official, speaking anonymously, said this is the first time the EU is tackling the engagement-based recommender model head-on, and that explicit signals such as an “I’m not interested” button should count more than implicit metrics like watch time and likes. Those controls, the official argued, must have real effect rather than being an afterthought before the old system resumes.
The DSA also provides a non-personalised feed; only 0.2 percent of TikTok users select it. The company can now examine the evidence, defend its design and propose remedies the regulator will accept, to avoid a fine. It previously closed a DSA inquiry on advertising transparency by agreeing on fixes. TikTok did not respond to Politico Europe’s request for comment.
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