EU Cracks Down on TikTok: Calling Out Opaaque Advertising Practices
EU Commission Investigates Potential Secretive Ad Practices by TikTok - EU Commission scrutinizes TikTok's advertising practices due to transparency concerns
The popular platform TikTok is in hot water with the European Commission, who've accused it of failing to comply with EU digital rules due to shrouded advertising practices. The Chinese-owned social network is under scrutiny for not disclosing adequate information about the advertisements that grace its platform, potentially resulting in hefty fines.
The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) requires platforms to establish an ad repository, a crucial tool for researchers and civil society to unveil deceptive advertising, detect hybrid threat campaigns, coordinated information operations, and identify false ads. The Commission is displeased by TikTok's absence of an ad registry and the limited search functionality of its ad archive, which severely undermines its utility.
However, TikTok contests these findings: "Although we're on board with the objectives of the legislation and are continually working on boosting our ad transparency tools, we find issue with the Commission's interpretations, and we view the guidelines as more akin to preliminary findings than clear, public guidelines," a spokesperson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The company plans to evaluate the Commission's preliminary findings on its ad archive and continue constructive dialogue.
Facing potential penalties of up to six percent of its annual turnover, TikTok has been given notice of the preliminary results. The conclusions are based on an investigation that encompasses an analysis of internal corporate documents, testing of TikTok tools, and discussions with industry experts.
Previous Controversies with TikTokThe European Commission launched probes against TikTok last year in relation to Romania's first round of presidential elections. Brussels chastised the platform for neglecting to label content from the pro-Russian, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu as political advertising. A Romanian court nullified the election due to suspected Russian election interference and financial irregularities.
Investigations Targeting Other PlatformsSeveral proceedings are underway against the platform X owned by US billionaire Elon Musk on the EU level for suspected DSA violations. The aim of the DSA is to ensure consistent action against hate speech. Independent investigations under the DSA are also ongoing against the Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta in Brussels.
Clarifying the DSA's Ad Transparency Obligations
The EU's Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates ad transparency obligations for platforms showing advertisements in the EU. These include:- Openly Labeling Ads: Platforms must clearly mark content as a paid advertisement.- Identifying Advertisers: They must disclose the advertiser's identity.- Explaining Targeting Parameters: The main parameters used to target users, such as demographics, location, or interests, must be explained in real-time and be accessible to the average user.
- TikTok
- EU
- European Commission
- Brussels
- Advertising
- Digital Services Act (DSA)
- The European Commission has accused TikTok of failing to comply with EU digital rules due to opaque advertising practices, which could lead to hefty fines.
- As part of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), TikTok is required to establish an ad repository to help unveil deceptive advertising and detect false ads, but currently lacks an ad registry and has limited search functionality in its ad archive.
