The EU on Monday launched a probe into TikTok’s spinoff Lite app and threatened to droop an “addictive” characteristic on it that rewards customers for watching and liking movies, amid child-safety considerations.
TikTok Lite arrived in France and Spain in March permitting customers aged 18 and over to earn factors that may be exchanged for items like vouchers or present playing cards via the app’s rewards programme.

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The European Fee mentioned in a press release it has considerations concerning the app’s “dangers of great injury for the psychological well being of customers”, together with minors.

TikTok Lite is a smaller model of the favored TikTok app, taking over much less reminiscence in a smartphone and made to carry out over slower web connections.

TikTok final week failed to offer a danger evaluation for the spinoff app by an April 18 deadline, the fee mentioned, demanding the corporate now hand it over by Tuesday.

It’s threatening to impose interim measures together with suspending the rewards programme within the European Union “pending the evaluation of its security”.

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TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has till Wednesday to current a proper defence in opposition to such a measure.The fee additionally warned if TikTok did not reply to the request, it may impose fines of as much as one p.c of its whole annual earnings or of its world turnover and periodic penalties as much as 5 p.c of its common day by day earnings or annual turnover worldwide.

TikTok mentioned it will proceed discussions with the fee however insisted the programme was not obtainable to minors.

“We’re disenchanted with this choice — the TikTok Lite rewards hub is just not obtainable to underneath 18s, and there’s a day by day restrict on video watch duties,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned in a press release.

– Second TikTok probe –

The probe is the EU’s second in opposition to TikTok underneath a sweeping new legislation, the Digital Providers Act (DSA), that calls for digital corporations do extra to police content material on-line.

“We suspect TikTok ‘Lite’ may very well be as poisonous and addictive as cigarettes ‘gentle’,” mentioned the European Fee’s high tech enforcer, Thierry Breton.

“Until TikTok offers compelling proof of its security, which it has did not do till now, we stand able to set off DSA interim measures together with the suspension of TikTok Lite options,” Breton mentioned.

The fee additionally quizzed TikTok about its measures to mitigate “systemic dangers” in its Lite app and gave the platform till Could 3 to reply.

TikTok Lite customers can win rewards in the event that they log in day by day for 10 days, in the event that they spend time watching movies (with an higher restrict of 60 to 85 minutes per day) and in the event that they undertake sure actions, equivalent to liking movies and following content material creators.

The fee mentioned it believes TikTok launched the app “with out prior diligent evaluation of the dangers it entails, particularly these associated to the addictive impact of the platforms, and with out taking efficient danger mitigating measures”.

TikTok is amongst 22 “very massive” digital platforms, together with Amazon, Fb, Instagram and YouTube, that should adjust to stricter guidelines underneath the DSA since August final yr.

The legislation offers the EU the facility to slap firms with heavy fines that might attain as excessive as six p.c of a digital agency’s world annual revenues.

Repeat offenders may even see their platforms blocked within the 27-country European Union.

In February, the fee opened a proper probe into TikTok underneath the DSA over alleged violations of its obligations to guard minors on-line.

It has individually launched different investigations into X, previously often known as Twitter, and Chinese language web retailer AliExpress.

TikTok can also be being squeezed throughout the Atlantic.

The US Home of Representatives handed a invoice on Saturday that will drive TikTok to divest from ByteDance or face a nationwide ban in america, the place it has round 170 million customers.

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