EU Knocks TikTok for Shady Ad Practices: Transparent Advertising, Here's Why It Matters
EU Commission Scrutinizes TikTok over Transparent Advertising Practices - EU Commission Scrutinizing Transparent Advertising Practices on TikTok
TikTok, the popular social media platform, is under fire for flouting EU digital advertising laws, as per a preliminary investigation by the European Commission. The main issue? Lack of transparency in ad content, putting TikTok at risk of hefty penalties.
The Brussels authorities claim that the Digital Services Act (DSA) mandates ad repository publishing, a crucial tool for researchers and civilians to identify deceptive advertising, hybrid threats, and information manipulation. Sadly, TikTok, a Chinese firm, skips this essential step, to the Commission's dismay.
The Commission points out that TikTok lacks an ad registry and offers a limited public search on the existing ad archive, reducing its research value. However, TikTok has a different spin on things: "Although we champion the DSA's objectives and are continually improving our ad transparency tools, we disagree with some of the Commission's interpretations. These findings seem more like preliminary views, not clear-cut guidelines," a TikTok spokesperson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Expect a thorough review of the Commission's preliminary findings on ad repositories and further dialogue.
Up to 6% of annual turnover penalty
Vice-President Henna Virkkunen emphasizes that online advertising transparency - knowing who's financing ads and targeting techniques – is vital for safeguarding public interest. Whether it's defending democratic elections, shielding public health, or protecting consumers from bogus advertising, citizens deserve to know the source of the messages they encounter.
TikTok, under Bytedance, was made aware of the preliminary findings and faces a possible sanction of up to six percent of its overall global annual income, the Commission revealed.
This preliminary assessment is the result of internal company document analysis, TikTok tool testing, and consultations with experts.
Past accusations against TikTok
Last year, the EU Commission accused TikTok of not disclosing political advertising during Romania's presidential elections. Brussels argued that the platform failed to label content from pro-Russian, far-right politician Călin Georgescu as political ads. Courts in Romania declared the election invalid over suspected Russian election meddling and financing irregularities.
Investigations target other platforms too
Several ongoing proceedings against a US platform owned by Elon Musk and Meta Group, Facebook, and Instagram's parent company, are underway in the EU for DSA violation allegations.
Keywords:
- TikTok
- EU
- Brussels
- China
- Advertising
- EU Commission
- Transparency
- Digital Services Act (DSA)
Enrichment Insights:
- Lack of Transparency in Advertising: The Commission found that TikTok fails to provide sufficient transparency about who pays for advertisements, making it difficult for users and researchers to understand ad targeting and distribution [1][3][5].
- Inadequate Advertising Repository: TikTok is criticized for not making its advertising repository publicly available, hindering research into advertising practices on the platform [4][5].
- Insufficient Data on Ad Targeting: Experts noted that TikTok discloses some targeting criteria, but data on reach is inadequate and lacks demographic breakdowns, making it hard to assess how ads are distributed across audiences or detect potential algorithmic bias [2].
- Technical Barriers to Research: TikTok presents significant technical barriers to meaningful research, including restrictive rate limits that hinder users after a few queries [2].
- Non-Compliance with Recommendation Algorithm Transparency: TikTok fails to provide transparency around its recommendation algorithms and does not offer users an alternative recommender system not based on profiling, as mandated by the DSA [2].
These violations could lead to significant fines, potentially up to six percent of TikTok's total global annual revenue [3][5].
- The European Commission, in its investigation, has expressed concerns about TikTok's lack of transparency in advertising, which includes reported inadequacies in disclosing the financing of ads and targeting techniques.
- Upon analyzing internal company documents, testing TikTok tools, and consulting with experts, the EU Commission has found TikTok in violation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly with regard to its advertising repository and ad transparency practices.
- TikTok faces potential penalties of up to six percent of its global annual turnover, as a result of the EU Commission's preliminary findings, as the Commission deems transparency in online advertising essential for safeguarding public interest.
