EU Finds TikTok’s Rabbit Hole Effect Breaches Law and Wants Feed Redesign

The European Commission said on November 6 that TikTok’s For You feed breaches the Digital Services Act because of what it calls a “rabbit hole effect,” in a preliminary finding published on its website. 

The Commission says the recommender system keeps showing more of whatever a user watches or likes, including content about sadness, isolation and body image, and that TikTok did not properly assess or reduce the risk. 

TikTok can still respond, and nothing is final. Regulators are now looking at the way the feed learns, not just individual features.

A Feed Learns From Every Scroll and Like

The finding rests on how the feed personalizes. 

Signals such as watching and liking videos shape recommendations, and the more a user engages with a type of content, the more similar content the algorithm offers, as RTÉ reports. 

The Commission says this can be harmful when exposure to videos about sadness, isolation or body image becomes endless and repeated, and that such rabbit holes “can have a detrimental impact on users’ mental health.” 

It names vulnerable adults and minors as the groups of greatest concern. This comes amid broader European pressure, as the UK decides on social media bans for under-16s across major platforms.

Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, put it plainly: “the algorithm serves more of the same,” per RTÉ. 

The Commission’s complaint is not about any single video. It is about a loop that a user helps build without choosing to. 

TikTok Took Some Steps, but the Commission Judges Them Ineffective

TikTok has taken some steps, which the Commission considers ineffective. At this stage, it says TikTok needs to change the design of the For You feed, though the Commission page spells out what the change should be. 

TikTok hasn’t responded on this yet. 

In February, a TikTok spokesperson called an earlier set of findings “categorically false and entirely meritless,” per Al Jazeera. 

The company has already faced pressure in the US, recently settling a major Alabama teen-safety lawsuit over core platform design rather than facing a public trial. 

That follows a previous settlement over unlawful collection of children’s data that carried significant financial penalties. 

If the Commission confirms its view, it may issue a non-compliance decision with a fine of reportedly up to 6% of TikTok’s worldwide annual turnover. 

Brussels Has Moved From Individual Features to the Recommendation Loop Itself

The February findings, reported by Al Jazeera, targeted infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and the personalized algorithm. 

A Commission spokesperson cited figures then: TikTok is the most-used social platform after midnight among 13- to 18-year-olds, and 7% of 12- to 15-year-olds spend four to five hours on it daily. 

July brought findings on protecting minors. November’s finding goes to the system underneath the other features. 

This makes a fix harder to describe as a toggle, since the complaint is about how the feed responds to behavior. 

The Commission has not said whether it wants the loop limited or interrupted, or how any change would be measured. 

The probe opened in February 2024, so by our count the case is more than two and a half years old, and no decision date has been reported.

Source:  Commission preliminarily finds TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed