Italy’s competition regulator opened an investigation into social network TikTok on Tuesday for spreading videos of young people hurting themselves with the so-called “French scar” challenge.
The research focuses on the most recent self-harm trend to emerge on the social network, with alleged origins in France, which consists of squeezing the cheekbones until a bruise appears, which may even leave permanent marks.
Italy’s competition and market authority, with the support of its special anti-monopoly unit, has conducted searches at the Italian headquarters of TikTok Technology Limited, responsible for the popular social network.
According to a note published by the organization, TikTok does not have “adequate systems in place to monitor content published by third parties and rules for removing dangerous content that encourages suicide, self-harm and misinformation do not apply.”
AGCM stressed that the platform does not have adequate systems in place to monitor content “especially in the presence of particularly vulnerable users, such as minors”.
“The exploitation of artificial intelligence techniques likely to lead to inappropriate conditioning of users” is also under investigation.
“In particular, the reference is to the platform’s algorithm that, using user data, personalizes the display of ads and re-proposes content similar to those already shown and interacted with through the ‘like ‘-function”, added authority.
Source: DN
