It’s become something of a meme to think of social media as a digital skinner box, but is that enough to warrant action against it? The European Commission seems to think so, as it announced that ubiquitous short form video app TikTok is “in breach of the Digital Services Act for its addictive design,” in a February 5 press release.
The release states: “The Commission’s investigation preliminarily indicates that TikTok did not adequately assess how these addictive features could harm the physical and mental wellbeing of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults … by constantly ‘rewarding’ users with new content, certain design features of TikTok fuel the urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain of users into ‘autopilot mode’.”
It cites some worrisome figures that it claims TikTok “disregarded,” such as the amount of time minors spend on the app at night, and reckons that the parental control tools don’t do enough to curb the app’s potential to incite “compulsive behaviour and reduce users’ self-control.”
This is just a preliminary investigation by the commission, though, and TikTok was offered the opportunity to change its ways or “reply in writing” and defend itself before any lasting decisions come of this. But the Commission will also consult the European Board for Digital Services, and “if the Commission’s views are ultimately confirmed,” TikTok may incur a fine “up to but not more than 6% of [parent company ByteDance’s] total worldwide annual turnover.” Given that ByteDance just surpassed Meta in quarterly revenue last year, that’s a pretty penny.
As this Politico piece notes, TikTok spokesperson Paolo Ganino called the preliminary findings “categorically false” and an “entirely meritless depiction of our platform,” adding that “we will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us.” In other words, they’re not just going to quietly remove the infinite scroll.
In fact, it may be a while before any changes come of this. The EU hit X with a €120 million fine last year for “deceptive design practices” and other regulation breaches, which Elon Musk called “insane.” I don’t know if you’ve been on X lately, but fines aside, it’s not exactly had a come-to-Jesus moment. How TikTok will or won’t change in response to this wave of scrutiny is yet to be seen, but perhaps easy to guess.
