Italy's antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Market Protection Authority (AGCM), has fined Chinese social media giant TikTok 10 million euros ($54,4 million) for failing to control content aimed at "minors and vulnerable people".
The measure concerns the dissemination of videos that may “threaten the psychophysical safety of users”, such as the “French scar” challenge, which consists of squeezing the skin on the cheeks until bruises appear.
According to a note from AGCM, this content is “systematically re-presented to users according to their algorithmic profile, encouraging an increasing use of the social network”, which is the most accessed in Italy.
According to the antitrust body, the TikTok did not take adequate measures to prevent the dissemination of this type of video, without taking into account the “specific vulnerability of adolescents, characterized by peculiar cognitive mechanisms from which derive, for example, the difficulty in distinguishing reality from fiction and the tendency to imitate behaviors group”
The Chinese social network has long been in the crosshairs of authorities in Western countries, especially in the United States, where a project approved by the House of Representatives paves the way to ban TikTok.
Through a spokesperson, the company said it “disagrees” with the Italian antitrust decision and that “content linked to the so-called 'French scar' registered a daily average of just 100 searches per day in Italy before the AGCM announced the investigations began last year.”
“We have long reduced the visibility of such content to users under the age of 18, including excluding it from the 'For You' page,” he added. (HANDLE)
