TikTok has announced it will stop running personalised ads for under-18s in Europe, as part of a series of new measures it’s implementing in preparation for the European Union’s upcoming Digital Services Act. The short-form video giant will also give users the ability to turn off personalised content discovery, and is making changes to its content moderation and reporting systems, in order to comply with the new rules.
TikTok already takes special measures relating to accounts for younger users. For example, accounts for those aged under 16 are set to private by default, meaning their content won’t appear in other users’ ‘For You’ content feeds. And all users can choose to turn off personalised advertising in their settings.
Now however, personalised advertising will be turned off for all users between 13 (TikTok’s lower age limit) and 17 years old.
Advertising to younger users has always been a tricky issue for the company. Just last Friday, the EU’s data protection regulator announced it will fine TikTok over processing of children’s data. And the business has already been handed a fine in the UK, and paid a $5.7 million settlement in the USA, over the same issue. Nonetheless, outside of the EU, TikTok will continue to run personalised ads for this younger age group.
EU users will also be able to completely turn off content personalisation. Users who choose to do this will instead be shown videos which are popular in their country in their ‘For You’ and ‘Live’ feeds, as well as in search results. Content in users’ ‘Following’ and ‘Friends’ feeds meanwhile will be presented in chronological order, as opposed to being algorithmically ranked.
TikTok will also give EU users more information over content moderation decisions, and introduce new content reporting options for European users to report content which they believe violates TikTok’s policies.
Regulation makes its mark
The DSA, alongside the Digital Markets Act (DMA), represents the European Union’s effort to rein in the global tech giants, and keep regulation of digital companies up to speed with how these businesses operate and compete with each other (as well as their non-digital competitors).
The DSA applies to all digital services. But those which are deemed by the EU to be particularly large – designated as ‘Very Large Online Platforms’ (VLOPs) – will have greater responsibilities under this new act.
The first tranche of VLOPs was announced back in April, and these companies were given four months to update their systems, resources, and processes in order to comply with the DSA. TikTok was included in this tranche, alongside Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and a number of other online services.
All of these platforms will have to ensure they are compliant with the new rules in the coming weeks. And these obligations come in the context of wider crackdowns on tech companies’ data collection and advertising practices. Just last Friday, Meta announced plans to ask EU users for explicit consent in order to personalise advertising, following an order from Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner back in January. After years of slow progress, regulation is starting to have a significant impact on the major tech platforms.
