EU preliminarily finds TikTok's For You feed in breach of Digital Services Act, demands redesign or fines

The European Commission said on Friday, November 6, that TikTok's personalised "For You" feed breaches the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) and must be fundamentally redesigned, warning that a confirmed violation could carry a fine of up to 6% of the company's total worldwide annual turnover. (Photo: file photo of the TikTok app on a smartphone.)

The 'rabbit hole effect' pushes users towards harmful content

The Commission said the For You feed keeps recommending videos similar to those a user has already watched or engaged with, creating a "rabbit hole effect": the more a user watches one kind of content, the more of it the algorithm serves. When repeated exposure involves material about sadness, isolation or body image, it can harm children and vulnerable users, the Commission said. Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, who oversees tech sovereignty, said the preliminary findings show TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users' well-being, including minors. The Commission acknowledged TikTok had taken some steps to mitigate the risks but judged them insufficient, calling for more radical design changes.

Four changes Brussels wants

The Commission wants TikTok to change the design of the feed, including relying more on users' explicit preferences, disabling viewing time as a signal for recommendations, making user controls easier to find and use, and regularly testing its algorithm. It warned that the existing "not interested" button "may not be enough to change the content feed". TikTok rejected the findings, saying they are "fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform's architecture and our commitment to user safety".

Preliminary findings, not a final decision

The findings are preliminary and do not prejudge the outcome. TikTok can now examine the Commission's investigation file and reply in writing, while the European Board for Digital Services is consulted in parallel; if the Commission confirms its views, it can impose a fine of up to 6% of the provider's total worldwide annual turnover. The Commission opened its investigation into TikTok over possible DSA breaches more than two years ago. In February it told TikTok to change "addictive design" features, and in July it issued preliminary findings on the protection of minors; in July it also told Meta to change the "addictive design" of Facebook and Instagram. The Commission's proposed EU KIDS Act, adopted on September 17, 2026, would require recommender systems to disable implicit engagement-based signals for minors by default, but the proposal is not yet law.

(Sources: European Commission; AFP; Euronews.)