Virtual coins, convertible into gift cards, in exchange for watching videos, liking content or following pages or influencers. TikTok, owned by the Chinese group ByteDance, launched its controversial new service in France and Spain at the end of March.
TikTok Lite rewards users with 'tokens' (cryptocurrency) if they log in daily for ten days, spend time watching videos (with a limit of 60-85 minutes per day) and perform certain actions, such as liking videos and following content creators. These coins can then be exchanged for gift cards on partner sites such as Amazon.
"As addictive as light cigarettes". Europe pays attention
The European Commission opened an investigation into the new TikTok Lite app on Monday and threatened to suspend the Chinese social network's feature that rewards screen time from Thursday, due to the risk of increasing addiction.
The European Commission, which now plays the role of digital police in the EU, believes that the mechanism poses "serious risks to the mental health of users" by forcing people to stay connected, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
However, the platform did not communicate a risk assessment to Brussels before its launch, in accordance with its obligations under the new Digital Services Act (DSA).
For this reason, the European executive is preparing to impose the suspension of the rewards program: "Before formally adopting it, TikTok had until April 24 to present its defense arguments."
The European Commission issued a first warning on April 17, asking the platform to provide within 24 hours an assessment of the risks associated with this deployment and detail the means implemented to reduce them. But "TikTok did not provide the document in time," the Commission explained.
"Incessant streams of short, fast videos may seem fun, but they expose our children to the risk of addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and reduced attentionspan," warned EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.
"We suspect that TikTok 'Lite' is as toxic and addictive as 'light' cigarettes,"he said, quoted in a statement.
TikTok is "disappointed".
"We are disappointed" with the opening of this procedure: the TikTok Lite rewards program is not accessible to children under 18 and includes a daily limit for viewing videos," a TikTok spokesperson told AFP. The group, however, intends to "continue talks" with Brussels.
TikTok must provide its risk assessment report by Tuesday at the latest and answer further questions by May 3.
In the absence of a timely response, the Commission can impose fines of up to 1% of the group's annual global turnover and sanctions of up to 5% of daily turnover.
With short videos, TikTok, which has attracted more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, has been accused for several years in the US and Europe of causing addictive behavior among teenagers.
