EU Cracking Down on TikTok: Accusing Opaque Ad Practices
Potential secrecy in advertising on TikTok under scrutiny by EU Commission - Opaque Advertising Scrutiny: EU Commission Examines TikTok
Let's dive into the latest buzz surrounding TikTok, the popular social media platform, accused of bypassing EU digital regulations due to shady advertising tactics. Allegedly, TikTok fails to disclose essential information about ads on its platform, potentially leading to a hefty fine.
The European Commission isn't holding back regarding TikTok's lack of transparency. According to the Digital Services Act (DSA), platforms like TikTok are required to publish an ad repository, essential for researchers and civil society to spot fraudulent advertising, hybrid threat operations, coordinated information wars, and fake ads.
The Commission has criticized TikTok's absence of an ad registry and the platform's ad archive's limited search capabilities, making it less useful.
But TikTok isn't backing down. A company spokesperson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, "We support the objectives of the regulation and are enhancing our ad transparency tools. However, we disagree with some interpretations and are reviewing the Commission's preliminary findings on the ad repository while continuing the dialogue."
Penalties could reach up to six percent of the company's annual turnover.
Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen stresses the necessity of transparency in online advertising to protect the public interest: "Whether it's defending the integrity of our democratic elections, protecting public health, or safeguarding consumers from deceptive advertising, citizens deserve to know who's behind the ads they see."
TikTok, owned by Chinese-based Bytedance, has been informed about the preliminary findings, and investigations are ongoing against Twitter, Meta (Facebook and Instagram's parent company), and other US tech giants for similar violations.
Last year, the EU Commission launched probes against TikTok during Romania's first round of presidential elections, accusing the platform of not labeling content from a pro-Russian and far-right candidate as political advertising. A Romanian court invalidated the election due to suspected Russian election meddling and funding irregularities.
- TikTok
- EU
- Brussels
- China
- Advertising
- EU Commission
Enrichment Data:
The European Commission's preliminary assessment indicates TikTok's non-compliance with the DSA's transparency obligations concerning its advertisement practices. TikTok’s ad repository lacks detail on ad sponsors, the content of advertisements, and targeted audiences, jeopardizing public scrutiny and undermining the effectiveness of the repository as a research tool.
According to the Commission's investigation, TikTok presents technical barriers to meaningful research, such as restrictive query limits and vague data on ad reach with inadequate demographic breakdowns. More critically, TikTok does not adequately disclose how its recommendation algorithms function or provide users with alternative algorithms that do not rely on profiling, as required by the DSA.
The European Commission is pursuing enforcement measures, which could include substantial fines and heightened supervision if TikTok fails to rectify these issues promptly. The Commission highlights the importance of the ad repository in safeguarding democratic elections, public health, and protecting consumers from misleading advertising by revealing who funds online advertisements and how they target audiences.
- The European Commission has taken issue with TikTok's ad repository, claiming it falls short of transparency requirements stated in the Digital Services Act (DSA), specifically regarding the lack of information on ad sponsors, advertisement content, and targeted audiences, potentially jeopardizing public scrutiny.
- TikTok faces potential penalties from the EU Commission, as investigations uncover the platform's non-compliance with DSA's transparency obligations, including limited search capabilities, technical barriers to research, and inadequate disclosure of recommendation algorithms and profiling practices, which could lead to fines and increased supervision.
