The European Commission has charged TikTok with breaching the European Union's online content rules, saying its For You feed traps users in harmful rabbit holes of similar videos and must be redesigned.

The Commission issued the charges, known as preliminary findings, on Friday, 6 November. It said TikTok's recommender system breaches the Digital Services Act, the EU law that requires large online platforms to do more to tackle harmful content. TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, risks a fine of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover if the issue is not resolved next year.

What the Commission found

Regulators said the more a user interacts with a certain type of video, the more the algorithm serves up similar clips, drawing people into a constant stream of near-identical content. Endless and repeated exposure to videos about sadness, isolation or body image can have a detrimental impact on users' mental health, the Commission said, especially for children and vulnerable adults.

The case is the first in which the Commission has cited a platform's recommendation system itself as the reason for a breach of the Digital Services Act, rather than a single piece of content. Reporting on the findings also cites Amnesty International research that found teenagers pushed towards self-harm material by recommendation systems.

What TikTok must change

The Commission said TikTok needs to change the design of its For You feed and should rely more on users' explicit preferences, rather than on signals such as how long they watch a video. It also wants the app's user controls to be easier to find and use, and the algorithm to be tested regularly.

In short, the Commission said TikTok needs to change its business model in Europe, moving away from a feed designed to maximise attention towards one that gives users real control over what they see.

What is at stake

The findings are preliminary, not a final decision, and no fine has been imposed. TikTok can now review the Commission's evidence and propose remedies. If regulators find its response inadequate next year, a non-compliance decision could follow, with a fine of up to 6 percent of ByteDance's worldwide annual turnover.

The charges are the latest step in a formal investigation opened in February 2024. In February this year, EU regulators issued separate preliminary findings saying TikTok's designs were too addictive, that it had not done enough to protect children, and that it made it difficult for researchers to access public data. TikTok said at the time that those findings were categorically false and that it would challenge them.

Part of a wider investigation

TikTok is not the only platform in the Commission's sights. Regulators are separately investigating the rabbit hole effects of the recommendation systems used by Meta's Facebook and Instagram.

The outcome of the TikTok case will be watched closely across the technology industry, because a final ruling against the For You feed could force wider changes to how major platforms design their feeds for users in Europe.