The method of paying Tik Tok users daily in exchange for their interactions is considered addictive by the Commission.
Users who received rewards for their daily interactions on the platform will no longer be able to benefit from them. The Tik Tok Lite program, launched on the application, has just been interrupted throughout theEuropean Union. The Commission accuses the social network of making its consumers addicted and compromising their mental health. This Tik Tok extension had designed for several weeks a method allowing its users to obtain rewards for screen time spent. Made accessible in France and Spain at the end of March this year, Tik Tok Lite guaranteed these users to earn virtual tokens for their interactions.
More concretely, the rewards applied to the extent to which the consumer spent time watching videos on Tik Tok, liked videos and followed content creators. A lot of commitment, therefore, but little money since the user could receive up to 38 cents per hour spent on the platform. He could then use them to transform the tokens into gift vouchers that could be used via partner sites.
Tik Tok justifies itself, but backs down
Since this Wednesday, Tik Tok has “voluntarily” suspended this possibility while an investigation is carried out. This is not the first time that Tik Tok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, has been subject to controversy, particularly in the EU and the United States. On April 17, the European Commission warned the social network. It required the application’s managers to provide an assessment of the risks linked to its new Lite application within 24 hours. The Commission recently explained that it had not received any feedback within the expected time frame. A week later, before the launch of an investigation in Brussels, Tik Tok had still not communicated about the risks.
The obligation of Tik Tok, provided for by the new regulation in terms of digital service, has obviously not been taken into account. The Commission did not refrain from recalling the importance of this law while revoking the character “addictive” which affects the younger generation.
The social network for its part justified itself by explaining that its service “was not accessible to users under 18”. Other reactions followed on social networks, including the words of the current European Commissioner in charge of digital affairs: Our children are not guinea pigs for social networks”, underlined Thierry Parin on his X account. A few days earlier, he had announced the opening of an investigation in Brussels which was to determine the outcome of this method. Following the decision rendered this Wednesday, he clarified that proceedings were being initiated against Tik Tok.