BRUSSELS – In another high-stakes regulatory move targeting major global social media platforms, the European Commission announced Friday that it has concluded TikTok failed to put sufficient safeguards in place to protect children’s privacy rights on its platform. Specifically, the Commission found that the platform’s existing settings allowed adult users to access the personal accounts of underage users without proper restrictions.
This gap in privacy protections does not merely violate regional digital rules — it creates serious tangible risks for young users, EU regulators emphasized. The open accessibility of minor accounts exposes children to a range of harms, including cyberbullying, unsolicited contact from strangers, and potential predatory behavior.
Friday’s announcement is the latest in a string of aggressive enforcement actions against large technology companies led by Brussels, which has emerged as a global trailblazer in strict oversight of tech industry giants. Over recent years, the EU has advanced sweeping regulatory actions against other major players including Meta and Apple, setting a benchmark for digital governance that many other regions have since followed.
Under the EU’s regulatory process, TikTok now has the opportunity to mount a formal defense and submit a formal response to the Commission’s findings. If regulators remain unsatisfied with the Chinese-owned company’s corrective plans or response, they can issue a formal non-compliance ruling, which opens the door to financial penalties that could reach as high as 6% of TikTok’s total global annual revenue.
This is not the first time the EU has ruled against TikTok this year. Back in February, the bloc’s regulators found that the platform violated another key provision of its digital rulebook by designing its user experience to encourage compulsive overuse. Features including infinite scroll and automatic content playback were flagged for their addictive design, which regulators concluded poses measurable risks to the physical and mental well-being of all users, with minors facing the greatest harm.