Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – The European Union on Friday demanded that the social network TikTok radically modify its personalized video streams, accused of harming the well-being and mental health of users by exposing them to spirals of content with very negative effects.

First modification: 06/11/2026 - 16:13

The subsidiary of the Chinese group ByteDance, in the crosshairs of Brussels, risks a very high fine, as the European Commission considers that it could have violated key provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA).

This is a content regulation that constitutes one of the main legal tools that the EU has deployed in recent years to control large technology firms.

At the root of the problem is the very operation of TikTok's content recommendation algorithm.

Personalized video streams are designed to offer over and over again all types of content that has piqued a user's interest, even those that address topics that can affect physical and moral well-being when viewed repeatedly, such as sadness, loneliness or self-esteem.

Enclosing yourself in the uninterrupted and repeated viewing of this type of content (a phenomenon called "rabbit holes") can have negative effects on mental health, warns the European Commission, particularly when it comes to vulnerable adults or minors.

The social network has already introduced changes to its personalized flows, but Brussels considers that they are not enough. For this reason, the European Executive demands from TikTok a series of profound changes that affect the very core of its business model, based on capturing the maximum attention of users.

The request refers to the way in which its algorithm selects the contents to be displayed.

Brussels regrets that even if an Internet user indicates that he is no longer interested in certain types of content, the TikTok algorithm can ignore this choice to maximize the time the user spends on the platform.

"The Commission has made a number of fundamentally inaccurate statements," a spokesperson for the group reacted to AFP.

"We have a proven track record of protecting our community," the platform added.

TikTok is already under suspicion of having committed other violations of this same regulation, among others, failure to comply with its child protection obligations, creating risks of cyberbullying and exposure to possible predators.

The EU has launched a broad offensive to curb social media under the DSA and intends to ban it for children under 13 years of age, due to the numerous risks to their well-being and development.

© 2026 AFP

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