"EU charges TikTok over harmful algorithmic 'rabbit hole' effects", 6 November 2026

EU tech regulators charged social media platform TikTok on Friday with breaching the bloc's online content rules, telling ​it to fix the so-called "rabbit hole" effect of its recommender system, which attract users' attention ‌to a constant stream of similar videos.

TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance risks a fine next year of up to 6% of its global annual turnover unless it can resolve the issue, the regulators said...

The European Commission, which acts as ⁠the EU tech regulator, said it issued charges known as preliminary findings to TikTok after the company failed ​to implement proportionate, reasonable and effective mitigation measures to address the risks...

TikTok rejected the accusations. "The Commission has made a series of statements that are fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform's architecture and our commitment to user safety," the company ​said in a statement. "We have a strong record of protecting our community while giving users direct and intuitive ​control over their content experience."

The Commission said TikTok ​needs to change the design ​of its 'For You' feed ⁠algorithm and should rely more on users' explicit preferences, increase the accessibility and usability of user controls and regularly test its algorithm, among other changes.