Italy’s Antitrust Regulator Probes TikTok

On Tuesday, Italy’s antitrust authority announced an investigation into the Chinese-owned app TikTok for allegedly violating its rules. The main reason for this investigation is due to the possible publication of dangerous content which could incite suicide, self-harm and poor nutrition.

The Italian watchdog is evaluating the activities of TikTok’s Ireland, UK and Italian units. To this point, Italy’s tax police have visited TikTok’s Italian headquarters. A statement released by the watchdog reveals further details regarding their investigation.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, denied wrongdoing and said it would cooperate with the investigation.

Read more: UK Bans TikTok Over Security Concerns

Organizations worldwide are tightening up regulations as international worries increase at the possibility of China accessing customers’ contact and location information. This is a legitimate concern for our company and the industry as a whole. We take privacy seriously and are continually examining our security protocols to ensure that user data remains safe.

According to the watchdog “adequate systems to supervise the content published by third parties are lacking” and the app violates TikTok’s guidelines which provide for the removal of dangerous content.

The antitrust body also takes issue with the exploitation of artificial intelligence techniques capable of “causing undue conditioning” of TikTok’s users.