EU Orders TikTok to Fix Its Rabbit Holes or Face a 6% Hit

Europe just put TikTok on the clock. On Friday, the European Commission said its investigation found the app's recommendation algorithm violates the Digital Services Act, the EU rulebook that forces big platforms to shield users from certain harms. If TikTok won't comply, its owner ByteDance could face a fine reaching 6% of global turnover, according to The Guardian.

The issue isn't the content itself. Regulators say TikTok fails to properly assess or address what happens when it keeps serving more of the same thing — content about body image, isolation and disordered eating, aimed at young and vulnerable users. The commission's tech policy chief, Henna Virkkunen, put it bluntly to The Guardian: every scroll or like feeds the algorithm more of the same, leading users down rabbit holes they can't easily escape. TikTok, she said, needs to step up on user wellbeing, minors included.

TikTok isn't taking it quietly. A company spokesperson told the paper the commission's statements are fundamentally inaccurate and distort both the platform's architecture and its safety record, adding that users have direct control over what they see. Brussels framed the fight as a money question: an EC official told reporters the commission is addressing a business model.

The pressure has been building for a while. Back in February 2026, the EC issued preliminary decisions that infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and personalized recommendations all likely breached the DSA. TikTok called those findings categorically false at the time, Reuters reported.

The evidence cutting both ways. A University of Pennsylvania study modeling YouTube found users, not algorithms, may drive filter bubbles, and that rabbit holes didn't push viewers toward more extreme political views — though it didn't test body-image topics. Meanwhile, The Record noted an internal TikTok review obtained by Bloomberg found a 16-year-old who died by suicide in 2022 after watching sadness- and self-harm-themed videos had landed in a control group that never got the safety updates.

The same day the EC's findings landed, TikTok joined Google and Meta in filing separate lawsuits against California over a law banning psychologically exploitative features for users under 16. So TikTok is fighting on both sides of the Atlantic at once — and Brussels isn't waiting.