As a result of the investigation into the company TikTok Technology Limited, responsible for the relations of the well-known platform with European consumers, the AGCM carried out, with the help of the Special Antimonopoly Unit of the Finance Guard, a search at the headquarters of the company, the agency explained on its website.
According to the agency, TikTok does not have “adequate systems in place to monitor content posted by third parties and the rules for the removal of dangerous content that incites suicide, self-harm and incorrect information do not apply, ”he explained in a note.
The investigation focuses on the latest self-harm trend that has appeared on the platform Chinese and that comes from France and that consists of pinching your cheekbones so hard and for so long that you have to get a bruise, but that can even leave permanent marks.
The AGCM adds that “it is being investigated that TikTok has not established adequate monitoring systems to supervise the content published by third parties, according to the required parameters, and especially in the presence of particularly vulnerable users of the service, such as minors.”
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It is also being investigatedthe exploitation of artificial intelligence techniques susceptible of causing undue conditioning of users”.
“The reference is, in particular, to the algorithm underlying the operation of the platform which, using user data, personalizes the display of advertising and re-proposes content similar to that already displayed and with which interaction has been made through of the I like function”, he explains.
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