EU demands TikTok redesign 'addictive' app as Big Tech watches

BRUSSELS (CN) — European regulators delivered a blunt message to TikTok on Friday: Your app is designed to addict users, especially kids, and that’s illegal under EU law.

The European Commission — the European Union’s executive branch — issued preliminary findings that TikTok violated the bloc’s Digital Services Act by building features like infinite scroll, autoplay and push notifications that keep users — particularly children and teenagers — endlessly scrolling through videos.

Regulators said the Chinese-owned platform didn’t properly assess how these features harm mental health, and the safeguards TikTok claims protect young users don’t actually work.

Under the tech rules, Brussels can impose fines of up to 6% of global revenue — about $9.3 billion on ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, which reported revenue of around $155 billion in 2024.

“TikTok is by far the most used platform after midnight by children between 13 and 18,” commission spokesman Thomas Regnier said in announcing the findings. “Seven percent of children between 12 and 15 spend between 4 and 5 hours daily on TikTok. These statistics are extremely alarming.”

It’s the first time any authority has set a legal standard for what counts as addictive design on social media, commission officials said.

The implications extend far beyond Europe. If forced to overhaul its algorithm for EU users, TikTok must choose between maintaining separate app versions or redesigning globally — and tech companies facing stringent EU rules have historically opted for the latter. Similar investigations into Facebook, Instagram and Chinese shopping app Temu suggest the case could reshape how the entire industry builds products.

And Brussels isn’t just demanding TikTok tinker around the edges. Regulators want the platform to fundamentally redesign how it works — potentially disabling infinite scroll altogether, mandating screen-time breaks, including at night, and overhauling the recommendation algorithm that keeps users hooked.

“The measures that TikTok has in place are simply not enough,” Regnier said. “Screen time management and parental controls are not properly working on TikTok.”

The findings push beyond content moderation into platform mechanics — challenging the core features that drive engagement and revenue.

TikTok reaches 170 million users in the European Union, most of them children, Regnier said.

The commission’s investigation — launched in February 2024 — found that constantly “rewarding” users with new content fuels compulsive behavior and shifts users’ brains into “autopilot mode,” according to scientific research.

TikTok ignored red flags including how much time minors spend on the app late at night and how frequently users open it throughout the day, regulators said.

“Social media addiction can have detrimental effects on the developing minds of children and teens,” said Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy. “In Europe, we enforce our legislation to protect our children and our citizens online.”

Commission officials emphasized the mental health risks extend to teenagers and young adults too. Even if EU countries restricted TikTok to users above a certain age, “it wouldn’t make our current grievance go away,” one official said.

Two pieces remain under review: whether TikTok adequately verifies users’ ages, and whether its recommendations create “rabbit hole” effects pushing users toward extreme content. TikTok resolved advertising transparency concerns in December; in October, regulators found preliminary violations in how the platform provides researchers access to data.

TikTok can now review the investigation file and submit a written defense. There’s no deadline for a final decision. In the most extreme scenario, after repeated failures to comply, the platform could theoretically be banned — though officials called that a distant “last resort.”

TikTok said in a statement, “The findings present a categorically false and entirely meritless depiction of our platform, and we will take whatever steps are necessary to challenge these findings through every means available to us.”

Commission officials stressed they’re not dictating exactly how TikTok must redesign its platform: “It’s a business choice for them,” one official said. But Brussels has laid out clear expectations: whatever solutions TikTok proposes need to actually reduce mental health risks, not just create pop-ups users can easily dismiss.

It’s not the first time Brussels has forced TikTok’s hand. Last year, the company agreed to permanently kill a feature called TikTok Lite Rewards that let users earn points for watching videos — after regulators warned it could fuel addiction.

Officials dismissed suggestions that the EU is targeting Chinese-owned TikTok while giving American tech giants a pass — a claim that has gained traction as EU Big Tech policy has come under intense criticism from President Trump and others in recent months.

U.S. platforms are next, bloc officials said, pointing to ongoing investigations into Facebook and Instagram. TikTok simply came first because it has more European users — 170 million versus fewer than 100 million for X.

The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee this week released a report accusing Brussels of using the act to pressure platforms into censoring political speech globally — a separate issue from addictive design, but one officials dismissed as “pure nonsense.”

The Digital Services Act, which took effect for the largest platforms in August 2023, requires those with more than 45 million EU users to identify and address “systemic risks” to users’ well-being — going beyond content rules to target algorithms and product design.

Meanwhile, European governments are pursuing outright bans. France’s lower house voted in January to bar social media for anyone under 15; the U.K. and Denmark are considering similar measures. Spain went further, announcing an under-16 ban plus criminal liability for tech executives. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called social media “a failed state.”

In December 2025, Australia became the first country to enforce a ban on anyone under 16 using social media.

Courthouse News correspondent Yuval Molina is based in Brussels, Belgium.