• U.S. companies threaten to ban TikTok if Chinese parent company doesn't sell its shares
  • Technology New Zealand's Parliament to ban use of TikTok from March 31 for safety reasons

The Authority Guarantor of Competition and Market (AGCM) of Italy has opened an investigation against the Tik Tok platform for the publication of numerous videos of young people who engage in self-injurious behavior, the latest, the so-called challenge of "the French scar".

Following the investigation of the company TikTok Technology Limited, responsible for the relations of the well-known platform with European consumers, the AGCM carried out, with the help of the Special Antimonopoly Unit of the Finance Guard, a search at the Italian headquarters of the company, the agency explained on its website.

According to the agency, Tik Tok does not have "adequate systems to monitor content posted by third parties and the rules of removal of dangerous content that incites suicide, self-harm and incorrect information do not apply," it explained in a note.

The investigation focuses on the latest self-injurious trend that has appeared on the Chinese platform and that comes from France and that consists of pinching your cheekbones so hard and for so long that you have to leave a bruise, but that can even leave permanent signs.

The AGCM adds that "it is investigated that TikTok has not established adequate monitoring systems to monitor the contents published by third parties, according to the required parameters, and especially in the presence of especially vulnerable users of the service such as minors."

It is also investigating "the exploitation of artificial intelligence techniques likely to cause undue conditioning of users."

"The reference is, in particular, to the algorithm underlying the operation of the platform that, using user data, personalizes the display of advertising and re-proposes content similar to those already displayed and with which you have interacted through the Like function," he explains.

According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more

  • Tik Tok
  • Social Media
  • Trending