The European Commission has issued preliminary findings that TikTok’s recommendation system may breach the Digital Services Act, saying the app’s For You feed can keep users in repeated streams of similar videos about sadness, isolation or body image. The EU TikTok rabbit hole findings concern how the feed assesses and reduces those risks, rather than whether every video involved is illegal.
The Commission announced the action on 6 November as part of its wider investigation into TikTok. It said a user’s interactions with a category of videos cause the system to supply more of the same category, creating what regulators call a “rabbit hole.” According to the Commission, prolonged repetition of that material can damage mental health, especially for minors and vulnerable adults.
What does the EU say TikTok’s rabbit hole effect is?
TikTok’s For You feed is a personalised video stream. The Commission says that liking, scrolling through or otherwise engaging with a type of video can become a signal to recommend more similar clips. The regulator’s complaint is about the cumulative effect of those recommendations: content that may be permitted on its own can, it says, become harmful when a feed repeatedly supplies it.
The preliminary findings address TikTok’s risk assessment and its safeguards. The Commission said TikTok did not put in place mitigation measures that were proportionate, reasonable and effective for the risks it identified.
European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen said the company should do more to protect users’ well-being, including minors. The Commission has said TikTok should rely more heavily on preferences users explicitly state, make user controls easier to find and use, and regularly test the feed’s algorithm.
Is TikTok already fined by the EU?
No. The findings are preliminary, not a final decision. TikTok can inspect the Commission’s evidence and challenge the allegations before regulators decide whether the company has infringed the Digital Services Act.
If an infringement is confirmed, ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, could face a fine of up to 6% of its worldwide annual turnover. That is a maximum potential penalty, not a fine imposed now.
TikTok rejected the Commission’s position. A company spokesperson said the regulator’s statements were “fundamentally inaccurate” and misrepresented both TikTok’s platform architecture and its commitment to safety. TikTok also said it has a strong record on protecting its community and provides users with direct, intuitive controls over their content experience. Those are the company’s claims, not the Commission’s conclusion.
How does this differ from earlier TikTok findings?
The November action is focused on the recommendation system’s repeated-content effects. In February, the Commission separately issued preliminary findings over TikTok features it described as addictive, including infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and a highly personalised recommender system. In July, it issued separate preliminary findings that minors’ accounts did not meet required safety standards.
The Commission is also separately investigating similar rabbit-hole effects involving Meta’s Facebook and Instagram recommendation systems, Reuters reported. No final outcome has been announced in the TikTok matter.
This story draws on original reporting from The Record.
