​On Monday, the European Commission initiated formal procedures to assess whether TikTok violates the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas related to the protection of minors, transparency of advertising, access to data for researchers and other areas, reports Agerpres.

“The protection of minors is a top priority for the implementation of the Digital Services Act. As a platform that reaches millions of children and teenagers, TikTok must fully comply with the Digital Services Act and play a special role in protecting minors online. Today we are launching this formal infringement procedure to ensure that proportionate measures are taken to protect the physical and emotional well-being of young Europeans. We must do everything we can to protect our children,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a press release.

The procedures of the European Commission will focus on the following areas:

• complying with the DSA’s obligations related to the assessment and mitigation of systemic risks in terms of actual or perceived negative consequences arising from the design of the TikTok system, including algorithmic systems that may promote behavioral addiction and/or create so-called “rabbits with holes” ;

• complying with obligations under the Digital Services Act to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, in particular with respect to default privacy settings for minors, as part of the design and operation of their recommendation system;

• complying with the obligations set out in the Digital Services Act to maintain a reliable and searchable data register for advertising messages served on TikTok;

• measures taken by TikTok to increase the transparency of its platform.

The European Commission has warned that TikTok may be banned in the EU

The investigation concerns alleged deficiencies in providing researchers with access to TikTok’s publicly available data, as required by Article 40 of the Digital Services Act.

The EU enforcement body notes that the current initiation of proceedings is without prejudice to any other proceedings the Commission may decide to initiate in relation to any other conduct that may constitute an infringement under the Digital Services Act, for example in relation to a provider’s distribution obligations illegal content, such as terrorist content or online child sexual abuse, or reports of suspected crimes.

In addition, it does not affect enforcement measures taken by other authorities in accordance with other regulatory documents, for example, the Network of Cooperation for the Protection of Consumer Rights.

The European Commission has repeatedly threatened TikTok that it may even ban the video-sharing platform in the community space if it does not comply with the regulations stipulated by the DSA.

“We will not hesitate to apply the full range of sanctions to protect our citizens if inspections do not show full compliance with the law,” Commissioner Thierry Breton said last January.

Last September, the European Commission fined TikTok nearly 350 million euros for violating data protection regulations (GDPR) when processing information about minors.