The service in question would have rewarded TikTok users for watching certain videos with things like gift vouchers. However, the EU threatened to block the service for violating the new Digital Services Act (DSA). According to Thierry Breton, the digital commissioner, the EU was concerned that providing incentives for viewing videos would make the platform as “addictive as cigarettes.”
Where was TikTok going to offer rewards for watching videos?
Answer: The European Union.
This week hasn’t been the best week to be TikTok. On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to ban the app unless parent company ByteDance sells it. Then on Wednesday, the company chose to suspend a new service it had planned to roll out in the EU rather than run afoul of the law.
The service in question would have rewarded TikTok users for watching certain videos with things like gift vouchers. However, the EU threatened to block the service for violating the new Digital Services Act (DSA). According to Thierry Breton, the digital commissioner, the EU was concerned that providing incentives for viewing videos would make the platform as “addictive as cigarettes.”
TikTok was given 48 hours to respond and offer a defense, but the company came back sooner than that with an announcement that it would suspend it. This was the first non-compliance case brought by the EU under the DSA. The service had been introduced in France and Spain, and it was immediately suspended for all new users for 60 days in those countries. Current users will stop receiving the service by May 1, and it will not be rolled out to other countries.
The service in question would have rewarded TikTok users for watching certain videos with things like gift vouchers. However, the EU threatened to block the service for violating the new Digital Services Act (DSA). According to Thierry Breton, the digital commissioner, the EU was concerned that providing incentives for viewing videos would make the platform as “addictive as cigarettes.”
