EU accuses TikTok of violating advertising transparency rules

The European Union (EU) on May 15 accused social network TikTok of violating the Digital Services Act (DSA) - the bloc's key legal framework for controlling online content, after determining that the platform was not transparent in its advertising activities.

This is the first time the EU has formally concluded that TikTok violated the DSA.

In the announcement, the European Commission (EC) stated that TikTok "does not provide full information about the content of the ads, the target audience, or the identity of the person paying for the ads."

“According to the preliminary assessment, TikTok does not comply with the DSA in key areas related to advertising databases, which prevents a comprehensive examination of the risks,” EU technology commissioner Henna Virkkunen said.

According to the EU, the risks mentioned in this case are often caused by the advertising system and the mechanism by which the platform selects and distributes ads to specific groups of users.

Responding to the above information, a TikTok spokesperson said the company is reviewing the EC's conclusions and remains committed to complying with the DSA, although noting that the company disagrees with some of the EC's interpretations.

According to TikTok's argument, the EC's conclusions are based on preliminary judgments rather than clear and public guidelines.

Effective since last year, DSA requires major global technology companies to establish advertising databases with full information about advertising content, so that researchers as well as organizations and individuals can easily look it up, thereby detecting fraudulent campaigns or information manipulation.

According to the DSA, tech companies could face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover if they violate the rules.

Last year, the EU also accused social network X of violating the DSA, claiming that the blue verification marks on billionaire Elon Musk's social network X could "mislead" users./.

(Vietnam News Agency/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/eu-cao-buoc-tiktok-vi-pham-quy-dinh-ve-minh-bach-quang-cao-post1038776.vnp