Report from Politico
In Brief – The European Commission has announced its preliminary finding that TikTok’s design violates the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) by promoting compulsive use and failing to protect users, particularly minors, from harms including excessive screen time. The regulator identified several problematic features that would need to be addressed by TikTok, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and its highly personalized recommender system, saying that they encourage habitual viewing by shifting the brain of users into “autopilot mode.” A senior Commission official said that this will be the first time a legal standard on addictive design has been set globally. TikTok said that the Commission’s findings were based on a “false” and “meritless” depiction of the platform.
Context – The charge that social media platforms are “addictive” is all the rage globally. In the US, it is part of a strategy of social media critics to circumvent the platforms’ legal protections under Sec. 230. Many states have enacted laws in recent years regulating the same platform features targeted by the EU in this case. Most have been blocked by federal judges for violating the First Amendment, although that trend is wavering. Civil lawsuits in the US targeting the same platforms for faulty, “addictive” design are having better luck getting past initial court hurdles. In Europe, there is no First Amendment protecting the social media platforms and the big ones are now directly regulated by the European Commission. TikTok is one of 13 facing DSA enforcement actions, including fellow social media giants Facebook, Instagram and X. The DSA defines online risks and platform duties at a very high level, such as “negative effects” to “minors” and user “well-being”. That leaves the Commission with seemingly broad license to use cases like this to define for Europe what an addictive online service is compared to one subject to “habitual use”, or just being very popular, but not too popular. All the social media platforms will be watching closely, as should gaming, chatbot and other platforms that could be deemed too popular.