Everything about the TikTok galaxy fined in Italy
How and why the TikTok group was fined by the Market Guarantor. Here are the details of the AGCM provision
Fine of 10 million by the Competition and Market Authority to three companies of the Bytedance Ltd group: the Irish TikTok Technology Limited, the British TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited and the Italian TikTok Italy Srl. Here are all the details.
THE WHY OF THE AGCM SANCTION ON TIKTOK
The Authority chaired by Roberto Rustichelli, who had started the procedure in March 2023 and who had also carried out inspections in the Italian headquarters of the TikTok group, contested – at least starting from 5 February 2023 and up to today – the absence of systems for monitor the contents published by third parties and the failure to apply the Guidelines of the companies that own the platform, which include the removal of dangerous contents that incite suicide, self-harm and unhealthy eating. In particular, Piazza Verdi's attention was attracted by the "French scar" challenge, which had received widespread media coverage.
The authority based in Piazza Verdi considered the conduct of the social network particularly serious given that it imposed the maximum administrative sanction provided for by article 27 of the Consumer Code, after the entry into force of the new sanctioning regime (previously the maximum edict was 5 million).
THE COMPANIES INVOLVED
The three companies involved belong to the Bytedance Ltd group, whose parent company Bytedance Ltd. is based in the Cayman Islands, as well as TikTok Ltd. which controls TikTok Uk which in turn controls 100% TikTok Technology Limited and TikTok Italy Srl The latter, as informs the AGCM in the closure provision, they achieved very significant turnover, equal to approximately 20 million euros (2022 budget of TikTok Italy Srl), 180 million euros (2021 budget of TikTok Technology Limited) and 2,400 million euros (consolidated financial statements of TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited). The same financial statements show a gross operating margin of approximately 1.6 million and 18 million for TikTok Italy Srl and TikTok Technology Limited, while TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited presents a negative gross operating margin of approximately 458 million. The operating profit of TikTok Italy Srl and TikTok Technology Limited is approximately 994 thousand euros and 14.5 million while TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited presents an operating loss of 493 million.
AGCM'S ASSESSMENTS ON TIKTOK
According to the Antitrust, TikTok is therefore responsible for spreading contents – such as those relating to the "French scar" challenge – which can threaten the psycho-physical safety of users, especially if they are minors and vulnerable. The social network is also accused of not having taken adequate measures to avoid the diffusion of this content and therefore of not having fully respected the Guidelines with which it has adopted and which it has made known to consumers, reassuring them that the platform is a space " Safe". For the Guarantor Authority, the Guidelines are applied without taking proper account of the specific vulnerability of adolescents, characterized by particular cognitive mechanisms whereby, for example, they have difficulty distinguishing reality from fiction and tend to imitate group behaviour. In essence, we read in the provision, "the Guidelines appear to constitute a declination of virtuous principles which are subject to a discretionary and incomplete interpretation and application by professionals (companies, ed.), such as to translate into an avoidance of the same principles statements."
Finally, according to the Authority, the contents – despite being potentially dangerous – are disseminated through a "recommendation system" based on algorithmic user profiling, which constantly selects which videos to allocate to each consumer in the sections called "For You" and " Followed." All this is done with the aim of increasing interactions between users and time spent on the platform in order to increase the profitability of advertising revenues. In this way, users who are encouraged to use the platform more and more: "All the aforementioned profiles – we read again in the closure provision – have the effect of increasing the time spent by the user on the platform with a consequent increase in revenue from TikTok”.
DANGEROUS CONTENT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The investigation into TikTok is actually part of a trend that Piazza Verdi has been following for years, focused on social networks and the relationship that is created with consumers.
In the provision, the Authority underlines that "the presence of dangerous content on TikTok and the negative impact of social media has assumed media relevance and raises concerns among specialists in the medical field" and in this regard recalls that since 5 February 2023 it has gone viral the challenge relating to the "French scar", "concerning the dissemination of videos of children who obtain and teach themselves how to obtain a red mark on their cheekbone, evident and long-lasting, as if it were a large scar".
The Guarantor therefore cites "the information acquired during the procedure by an expert in child neuropsychiatry", namely Professor Stefano Vicari, full professor of Child Neuropsychiatry and director of the Complex Operational Unit of Child Neuropsychiatry of the IRCCS Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital in Rome, which was audited by the Authority. Vicari has in fact highlighted that "self-harming behaviour, even non-suicidal ones, such as those concerning the French scar, are in any case capable of representing a danger for vulnerable subjects, given that even mild self-harming behavior constitutes the first risk factor for further conduct, of the suicidal."
Furthermore, a study carried out in December 2022 by the Center for Countering Digital Hate is cited which shows that teenagers interested in videos linked to suicidal instincts, self-harm, mental illnesses/depression or eating disorders are shown videos with similar content at a high frequency. long greater than that of adolescents who initially did not show this interest. In other words, the provision continues, "vulnerable teenagers are exposed more frequently to harmful content and this occurs on the basis of TikTok's recommendation system".
It should also be remembered that access to the platform is prohibited for users under the age of 13 and that some tools are provided to limit the exposure of children between the ages of 13 and 18 to potentially inappropriate content. At the same time, however, it must be said that, "although TikTok adopts some specific measures to remove the visibility of certain contents from minors and vulnerable subjects, these find an important limit in the possibility that users enter false information about their age during registration on the platform , which is referred, in the words of TikTok itself, to mere self-declaration".
THE OPINION REQUESTED FROM AGCOM
During the proceedings, the Antitrust also asked the Communications Authority for an opinion, but it did not send it because, according to it, the aspects of the contested conduct "do not appear to be linked to any commercial practice". In essence, for Agcom, TikTok's conduct would instead violate the Consolidated Law on Audiovisual and Radio Media Services (TUSMA) – sector legislation under the jurisdiction of the Authority chaired by Giacomo Lasorella – because there would be a lack of "adequate measures to protect a specific and a limited audience of users, which allowed the dissemination of contents objectively suitable to cause evident harm" to minors.
According to the Antitrust, however, the "commercial" nature of the contested practice is to be found in the relationship between TikTok and its users, who – in exchange for the provision of the social network service – give up their personal data which is then used by TikTok to profile users for commercial use. Therefore, a consumer relationship exists between society and those who use social media "even in the absence of monetary compensation".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tiktok-multa-agcm/ on Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:00:29 +0000.