Chinese-owned video sharing platform TikTok announced on Wednesday that it is voluntarily suspending the rewards scheme for its new TikTok Lite app, amid a legal investigation by the European Commission.
The commission said on Monday that it could order TikTok to suspend the rewards feature unless the company demonstrated - within 48 hours - that it poses no risk of serious harm. The commission also said the company had to show it had complied with risk assessment and mitigation rules for large platforms under the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA).
On Wednesday, TikTok posted on X: "TikTok always seeks to engage constructively with the EU Commission and other regulators. We are therefore voluntarily suspending the rewards functions in TikTok Lite while we address the concerns that they have raised."
The EU probe concerns the way TikTok Lite lets users collect points by watching videos and exchange them for things of value, such as Amazon vouchers. The commission said on Monday that it was concerned the scheme "has been launched without prior diligent assessment of the risks it entails, in particular those related to the addictive effect."
TikTok Lite, which is similar to the wildly popular TikTok app but uses less memory and bandwidth, had its European launch in Spain and France this month.
The commission was particularly concerned about the possible effects on children, officials said.
Responding to the announcement on Wednesday, EU industry commissioner Thierry Breton said on X: "Our children are not guinea pigs for social media. I take note of TikTok’s decision to suspend the TikTokLite “Reward Program” in the EU. The cases against TikTok on the risk of addictiveness of the platform continue."
TikTok sent dpa a statement on Tuesday saying that "the TikTok Lite rewards hub is not available to under 18s, and there is a daily limit on video watch tasks. We will continue discussions with the commission."
On Tuesday, European Commission spokesman confirmed that it had received a reply from TikTok before the first deadline. He said the EU executive will "assess the response and decide on potential next steps."
If the commission ultimately concludes that TikTok has fallen short of its risk-assessment and risk-mitigation obligations under the DSA, it could fine the company up to 6% of its global annual revenue.
The DSA's risk-mitigation rules for Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) - those with more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union - came into force in August 2023.
Currently-listed VLOPs include TikTok, X - formerly known as Twitter - and Meta's Facebook and Instagram platforms.