The small "not interested" button on a TikTok video now has a walk-on part in a European regulatory case. It turned up in the European Commission's preliminary findings against the app, which accuse TikTok of breaching the Digital Services Act through the way its For You page recommends videos, Engadget and Tubefilter report. The button, the Commission reportedly said, "may not be enough to change the content feed."
These are preliminary findings, not a final ruling, and TikTok disputes them. Xarmo couldn't check the Commission's announcement directly, so what follows is as the two outlets report it.
What the Commission is objecting to
The complaint is about a loop most users will recognise. According to Engadget, the Commission says the feed's personalised design means the more someone interacts with a certain kind of content, the more similar videos they see. That's fine when it's dogs on skateboards. The Commission's concern, in the wording Engadget quotes, is that "endless and repeated exposure" can be harmful when it "involves, for example, content about sadness, isolation or body image."
Its term for this is "rabbit holes," which it says can have a detrimental impact on mental health, "especially that of vulnerable adults and minors." Engadget reports the regulator found TikTok hadn't done enough to assess how the algorithm could draw users in, nor put sufficient measures in place to reduce the risks.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU executive vice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, put it in plainer terms in a statement quoted by Tubefilter: "Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from."
What would have to change
The Commission has a list. Engadget reports that it wants TikTok to change the design of the For You page, and that TikTok should "rely more on users' explicit preferences, disable viewing time as an indicator to recommend content, increase the accessibility and usability of user controls, and regularly test its algorithm."
Tubefilter adds that the "not interested" icon has long been cited as an ineffective control for users who don't want to see certain content. It also notes that an earlier request from EU officials under the DSA led TikTok to roll out a depersonalized version of its algorithm.
TikTok's answer, and what's at stake
TikTok rejected the claims. In a statement to Reuters, quoted by Engadget, it said: "The Commission has made a series of statements that are fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform's architecture and our commitment to user safety." It also said it has "a strong record of protecting our community while giving users direct and intuitive control over their content experience."
If the matter isn't resolved and the EU confirms its findings, Engadget reports that parent company ByteDance could face a fine of up to six percent of annual global revenue. Tubefilter says TikTok will get the chance to present documents and make its case first, and notes that TikTok and Meta have previously won a court challenge against the enforcement mechanism behind the DSA.
This isn't a one-off, either. Engadget says the findings are part of a wider investigation that began in early 2024, and that the EU said in February that the app's "addictive design" breached the DSA and criticised its protection of minors' privacy in July. Engadget also notes that TikTok, Google and Meta sued California this week over a law aimed at keeping under-16s away from potentially addictive features.
What happens next
No deadline for a final decision appears in either report. Tubefilter says TikTok will get its chance to present documents and make its case, and neither outlet reports any change to the feed so far.
Reporting notes
