The European Union has launched an investigation into TikTok’s Lite app, expressing concerns about its potential impact on mental health, particularly among minors.
The app rewards users for watching and liking videos, a feature the commission deems “addictive”. TikTok Lite is a smaller version of the popular TikTok app, designed for smartphones with less memory and slower internet connections.
The European Commission said in a statement on Monday that it has concerns about the app’s “risks of serious damage for the mental health of users”, including minors. TikTok Lite arrived in France and Spain in March, allowing users aged 18 and more to earn points that can be exchanged for goods like vouchers or gift cards through the app’s rewards programme.
TikTok last week failed to provide a risk assessment for the spinoff app by an April 18 deadline, the commission said, demanding the company now provide it by Tuesday. It is threatening to impose interim measures including suspending the rewards programme in the European Union “pending the assessment of its safety”.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has until Wednesday to present a formal defense against such a measure.
The commission also warned that if TikTok failed to reply to the request, it could impose fines of up to one percent of its total annual income or of its global turnover and periodic penalties up to five percent of its average daily income or annual turnover worldwide.
“We suspect TikTok ‘Lite’ could be as toxic and addictive as cigarettes ‘light’,” said the European Commission’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton.
The commission also quizzed TikTok about its measures to mitigate “systemic risks” in its Lite app and gave the platform until May 3 to respond.
