TikTok has decided to suspend Lite, its app that paid to watch videos or recommend users and that it had launched as a test in Spain and France. This Monday the European Commission threatened to block it if TikTok did not provide guarantees that minors would not access it or it would become addictive. The decision does not have immediate effect among those who had already downloaded it and registered in the rewards service: for a few more days it will be active and they will be able to redeem the money for a month.
The suspension is currently for 60 days, but TikTok does not rule out that it will be extended while conversations with the European Commission continue. Company sources say their decision is “voluntary” to “address concerns raised” by their new service: “TikTok always seeks to collaborate constructively with the European Commission, as well as other regulators. “As such, we will voluntarily suspend Rewards features in TikTok Lite while we address the concerns they have raised.”
The Commission had given until yesterday, April 24, to provide arguments. If TikTok did not comply, Brussels could begin to impose specific or periodic fines or directly suspend the application. “We suspect that the TikTok Lite function is toxic and addictive, particularly for children,” said Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton. “Unless TikTok provides compelling evidence of security (which it has not done so far), we are willing to activate interim Digital Services Act measures, including suspending the TikTok Lite ‘rewards program’,” he added.
TikTok appears to be temporarily protecting itself before Brussels activates sanctions. The company joins this front with another much larger one in the United States: the president, Joe Biden, has signed a law that gives the Chinese company ByteDance, owner of TikTok, nine months to sell it or be banned in the country . The main fears in the United States are that the Chinese government will influence the 170 million American users through the app or that Beijing will obtain personal data that it would not obtain otherwise.
The app deployed only in Spain and France, TikTok Lite, gives “points” for logging in every day, watching videos and recommending the application to other users. TikTok’s intention is that it can collect at most 1 euro per day, which could be given to creators or exchanged for gift vouchers from Amazon and other platforms. TikTok’s goal with Lite is, according to the company, to accelerate its growth among adult users, the weak point of its audience.
The Commission, however, believes that the risks have not been sufficiently evaluated and is concerned “particularly those related to the addictive effect of the platforms” and is especially “more worrying for children, given the alleged absence of effective mechanisms of protection.” age verification on TikTok.” Although the company says that the target is adults, the age control to use TikTok is, as on other platforms, avoidable. To end up getting the money from the rewards program, TikTok Lite does require a bank card, a video to be able to identify the user’s age by their face, or an identity document.