European regulator Thierry Breton shared a stern letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday, claiming his office has “indications” that the platform is being used to distribute disinformation and illegal content around the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

Breton serves as the European commissioner for the internal market. He said TikTok must be “timely, diligent and objective” about removing misinformation, particularly since minors often turn to the platform as a source of news.

Breton issued similar letters to X owner Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.

“First, given that your platform is extensively used by children and teenagers, you have a particular obligation to protect them from violent content depicting hostage taking and other graphic videos which are reportedly widely circulating on your platform, without appropriate safeguards,” Breton wrote in the letter.

    • atetulo@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Not for long.

      Imagine the uproar when EU citizens can’t get their addiction fix.

      • uis@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        All EU needs to do is spin-up national mastodon instanstance. Germany AFAIK already did it.

        • atetulo@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          That would be nice, but I don’t think they’re ready to give that much power over to free technologies.

          • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Multiple EU governments already did.

            The Netherlands as well for example.

      • Honytawk@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        We would be grumbling, but alternatives would pop out of the woodwork in record time.

        After which Xitter would be regarded the same as MySpace.

        • atetulo@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          but alternatives would pop out of the woodwork in record time.

          No they wouldn’t. But I guess we’d have to test to see.

      • YⓄ乙
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        This is true. My manager is an idiot and a social media addict.