The European Commission issued preliminary findings that TikTok’s For You feed breaches the Digital Services Act by leading users into “rabbit holes” of videos about sadness, isolation and body image. Because the algorithm counts watching and liking as signs of interest, people who linger on that content get served more of it, and the Commission said TikTok never properly assessed that risk. TikTok’s existing safeguards don’t work either, according to the Commission, since tapping “not interested” may not change the feed when the algorithm puts viewing time ahead of what users say they want. The Commission wants TikTok to lean on stated preferences and stop ranking videos by viewing time, and a final decision could bring a fine of up to 6% of its global annual revenue.
