European Commission forces TikTok rewards program to shut down on the continent
European data privacy regulators on Monday announced that TikTok’s Lite Rewards program will no longer operate in the European Union due to concerns about it causing addictive behavior and because the company failed to provide a risk assessment before launching the feature.
The decision comes only a few months after Lite Rewards launched in Spain and France, almost immediately drawing the attention of regulators enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA), a tough European data law which regulates data privacy and addictive design features in social media apps.
Users of Lite Rewards collect points if they complete specific assignments, such as liking content, following others, viewing videos and getting friends to join TikTok. Points can be exchanged for Amazon vouchers and PayPal gift cards.
European regulators say the program began without a “diligent assessment of the risks it entails” and said TikTok did not undertake “effective risk mitigating measures.”
Very large online platforms such as TikTok must complete risk assessments and turn them over to the European Commission before offering new programs that it deems “likely to have a critical impact on systemic risks,” a commission press release said.
“They also have to adopt effective mitigating measures to address identified risks,” it added.
Data regulators in Europe celebrated the victory.
“The available brain time of young Europeans is not a currency for social media — and it never will be,” Thierry Breton, commissioner for internal market, said in a statement. “The DSA is in full swing.”
The TikTok Lite Rewards program is the first DSA case the Commission has closed, officials said. An ongoing investigation of TikTok, which is probing the platform’s rules for protecting children and compliance with transparent advertising regulations, puts the social media platform at risk of stiff fines.
The EU crackdown comes amid a multifront attack on the platform in the U.S. On August 2, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission sued TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, arguing that the platform has flouted children’s privacy rules for years.
In April, the Biden administration signed off on legislation that would force a sale of TikTok by January or lead to a U.S. ban.
Suzanne Smalley
is a reporter covering privacy, disinformation and cybersecurity policy for The Record. She was previously a cybersecurity reporter at CyberScoop and Reuters. Earlier in her career Suzanne covered the Boston Police Department for the Boston Globe and two presidential campaign cycles for Newsweek. She lives in Washington with her husband and three children.