European Commissioner Thierry Breton, in charge of digital, invited Thursday, May 18, TikTok, among the other major online platforms, to accept a "blank" audit before the entry into force at the end of August of new more restrictive rules targeting them. He was speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, of which TikTok became an official partner last year.
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I've heard a lot in the halls about the partnership between the Festival and TikTok. Everyone knows how important issues relating to data protection and online security are. In this context, I believe it is useful for organizations that intend to establish partnerships, or extend them, to be concerned about these issues and ensure the conditions of use of the data, "said Thierry Breton to AFP. "I encourage TikTok to work as hard to protect our data and that of our children, and to moderate online content, as to work, visibly very effectively, on their marketing or lobbying plans," he added.
Supervision of the European Commission
The social network, whose parent company is the Chinese group Bytedance, was designated at the end of April among the 19 very large online platforms, including Twitter and the main services of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft, which will have to comply from August 25 with the law on digital services (DSA).
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These companies, which each have more than 45 million active users in the EU, will be placed under scrutiny by the European Commission and subject to strengthened rules, including an independent annual audit to ensure they are effectively tackling disinformation, online hate or counterfeiting. "There's certainly a lot of work to be done and I hope all of TikTok's energy goes into this compliance rather than anything else but it's not for me to judge how much time and resources TikTok is used. I know, however, that August 25 will arrive very quickly, "warned Thierry Breton.
He also invited these large platforms to accept "blank" audits, i.e. prior and without consequences in case of infringement. "Some have agreed that we will do it, including at home, where their headquarters exist. It is always more interesting to go to the head offices than to the representative offices, "insisted the European Commissioner, stressing that Twitter had for example accepted this audit "in situ".
