The video-sharing platform TikTok could face millions of euros in fines after a formal complaint was lodged against the company at its Dublin headquarters under the EU’s new Digital Services Act (DSA).
A recent investigation by a left-leaning digital rights group found that TikTok was hosting paid political advertising for the recent European and local elections in Ireland, in violation of stringent EU regulations.
Digital campaigner Liz Carolan, who reported on the apparent lack of oversight into political advertising on TikTok through her ‘The Briefing’ website, claimed that TikTok hosted paid political advertising on its site despite claiming to ban all political ads.
A spokesman for TikTok told the Irish Times this week that the website “does not allow paid political advertising, and this content has been removed from our platform.” However, the paper said several ads were still visible on the site while the spokesman was delivering the statement.
If the company is found guilty, it could be fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover—according to Irish media regulator Coimisiún na Meán, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros.
Billed as an EU attempt to impose hate speech regulations on the internet, the DSA has been lambasted by free speech advocates and industry experts alike.
The DSA became fully operational earlier this year, with TikTok becoming one of the first regulatory targets of the legislation on the grounds that the tech giant was failing to protect minors from harm and not doing enough to secure users’ data.
The majority of the DSA’s caseload across Europe is expected to be handled in Dublin since multiple major tech firms have their headquarters there.
Another target of the DSA is X, which also has its European headquarters in the Irish capital. It is under infringement proceedings by Eurocrats for its handling of user data and an alleged failure to handle misinformation.
