Italy’s competition police officer announced on Tuesday the opening of an investigation into Chinese social network TikTok, which is suspected of failing to apply its own rules controlling “dangerous content that encourages suicide, self-harm and eating disorders”.
The investigation by the Italian competition authority targets the Irish company TikTok Technology Limited, which is in charge of relations with European consumers, as well as the English and Italian companies, it said in a press release. TikTok’s Italian headquarters was also the subject of an inspection by the Financial Police-backed agency on Tuesday.
The opening of the investigation was motivated by the presence on the platform of “numerous videos of young people mutilating themselves”, particularly related to the so-called challenge of “the French scar” that has gone viral in Italy in this very popular Network among minors.
In this currently fashionable challenge, which is explained in many tutorials on TikTok, college students pinch their cheeks very hard to create a fake scar, a dangerous practice, doctors say. This phenomenon has occurred in France and Italy and has caused concern in the education and health sectors.
In particular, the Italian gendarme criticizes TikTok for not having set up adequate systems to monitor content, “especially in the presence of particularly vulnerable users such as minors”.
TikTok will also “not apply its own rules that provide for the removal of dangerous content related to challenges, suicide, self-harm and eating disorders,” emphasizes the authority in its press release.
Finally, TikTok, whose popularity has exploded in favor of the Covid-19 pandemic, is accused of using an algorithm “that personalizes advertising and re-suggests content similar to those already viewed”, resulting in “illegitimate conditioning” of users.
Also, TikTok, owned by Chinese giant ByteDance, is currently in the crosshairs of many countries for national security reasons. For its part, following in the footsteps of several Western powers – the United States, Canada and the European Union – the United Kingdom banned its use on government devices on Thursday.