The European Union has scored its first victory under the six months old Digital Services Act, with TikTok permanently icing its controversial TikTok Lite Rewards Program across the trade bloc.
The Chinese owned social media giant has also committed to not launch “any other programme which would circumvent the withdrawal.”
TikTok launched the programme in April, giving users the opportunity to earn “points” for “tasks” such as watching videos, liking content, following creators, recruiting friends to the platform. It was only launched in France and Spain.
It immediately drew the attention of the EU, which was concerned about the scheme’s potential to inspire addictive behaviour and undermine physical and mental health, particularly amongst minors. TikTok had also failed to provide a risk assessment of the service to investigators.
The EU launched a formal investigation of the programmr, and TikTok suspended it in short order.
Now the video platform has agreed to withdraw the programme permanently, and to not launch similar schemes. At least not in the EU.
For its part, the EU has made those commitments “legally binding” meaning any breach – including launching similar schemes in the EU – would immediately amount to a breach of the DSA, possibly leading to fines. It will be monitoring TikTok’s compliance.
An EU official, speaking anonymously, said the rapid resolution of the matter illustrated its commitment to protecting minors, and its desire to conclude DSA cases quickly. “We are not after fines or long legal proceedings.”
At the same time, TikTok’s commitment doesn’t mean it concedes it infringed the DSA. The agreement specifically covers the rewards programme; TikTok Lite will continued to be offered within the EU.
A TikTok spokesperson said, “TikTok is pleased to have reached an amicable resolution and has now withdrawn the TikTok Lite rewards programme which was launched in France and Spain in April, which we had already voluntarily suspended."
The spokesperson also said it always sought to engage constructively with the commission and other regulators.
Which is just as well, as the move does not affect the EU’s investigation into the main TikTok platform, which covers behavioural addictions and rabbit hole effects, as well as age verification concerns.
And the US’ DoJ and FTC jointly filed a civil lawsuit in California last week, accusing the company of “violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and its implementing regulations (COPPA)”.
The complaint claims, amongst other things, that from 2019 onwards, TikTok allowed children to set up accounts, and collected data on them with notifying or obtaining consent from their parents. And, it continues, it “frequently failed” to respond to parental requests to delete accounts and information.
