TikTok is going to stop a feature that gives rewards to its app users in France and Spain for watching videos because of attention from European Commission regulators.
“TikTok always wants to work well with the EU Commission and other regulators. So, we are choosing to stop the rewards functions in TikTok Lite while we deal with the concerns they have brought up,” TikTok Policy Europe stated on Wednesday in a post on X.
The announcement comes shortly after the European Commission stated it will look into look into whether TikTok’s “addictive” features of its TikTok Lite app violated the European Union’s Digital Service Act (DSA) regulations.
TikTok Lite was released in France and Spain and includes a “Task and Reward Lite” program that lets users earn points for tasks like watching videos, liking content, following creators, and inviting friends to join the app.
The commission says the app was launched “without prior diligent assessment of the risks it entails,” and “without effective risk mitigating measures.”
It asked TikTok for information about the program’s launch last week, but TikTok did not provide the risk assessment report and other requested information within the 24-hour timeline.
The commission gave the company a new deadline to submit the risk assessment report to the commission by Wednesday and until May 3 for additional information requested before facing hefty fines.
Last week, a TikTok spokesperson said the company was “disappointed” by the commission’s choice to open a probe and noted that the feature is not available to those under 18 years old and has a daily limit on video watch tasks.
“Our children are not experimental subjects for social media,” European Commissioner Thierry Breton said in a social media post after the announcement. “I take note of TikTok’s decision to suspend the #TikTokLite ‘Reward Program’ in the EU. The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue.”
The investigation is the second examination of TikTok’s compliance with the DSA since February. In that inquiry, the commission is investigating whether the social media platform is doing enough to reduce “systemic risks” in its designs that could encourage “behavior addictions.”
The decision comes on the same day as President Biden signed a groundbreaking legislation that could result in a ban on TikTok in the U.S. The bill sets a timeline for TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app or face a ban from U.S. app stores and networks.
ByteDance will have up to a year to find a buyer, but the process is likely to be disrupted by Chinese rules over the export of technology and a court challenge from TikTok.
