European regulator Thierry Breton shared a stern letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday, claiming his office has “indications” that the platform is being used to distribute disinformation and illegal content around the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Breton serves as the European commissioner for the internal market. He said TikTok must be “timely, diligent and objective” about removing misinformation, particularly since minors often turn to the platform as a source of news.
Breton issued similar letters to X owner Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.
“First, given that your platform is extensively used by children and teenagers, you have a particular obligation to protect them from violent content depicting hostage taking and other graphic videos which are reportedly widely circulating on your platform, without appropriate safeguards,” Breton wrote in the letter.
For those wondering how much this would cost, here’s a techcrunch article about similar threats to twitter:
https://techcrunch.com/2023/04/06/elon-musk-twitter-germany-hate-speech-takedowns/amp/
Key points:
TLDR: stuff like this is potentially an existential threat for social media companies. Not just a cost of business and something they can ignore.
I feel like this is the first time in almost 20 to 30 years that I’m seeing a regulatory body impose serious consequences for non compliance to a private corporation. I’m not holding my breath that anything changes.
GDPR has been used to similar effect with comparable penalties - https://dataprivacymanager.net/5-biggest-gdpr-fines-so-far-2020/
The EU does it quite a lot. That is what happens within a system where corporations don’t have free range.