The social network TikTok may be blocked in the European Union, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said.
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“It’s possible,” she said.
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Von der Leyen recalled that the European Commission became the first organization in the world whose employees were prohibited from installing TikTok on work phones.
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Last week, TikTok suspended its user rewards program following another warning from the European Commission.
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Earlier, the European Commission, in accordance with the new EU digital services law, sent TikTok owners a repeated request for a report on risk assessments of the TikTok Lite application, which includes reward functions for “likes.” The European Commission, in particular, suspects that such risk assessments were not carried out properly by the company, and that reward tools may have a negative impact on users, especially children, causing addiction and dependence. In particular, the EU is concerned about a program that rewards TikTok Lite users for completing certain tasks, such as watching a large number of videos, rating content and inviting friends.
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In turn, the US House of Representatives previously passed a bill that would force TikTok owner ByteDance to sell its American business under threat of blocking.