Spain Calls for TikTok to Suspend Operations Until Child Sexual Abuse Content Is Removed
On November 10, Spain’s government called on TikTok to suspend operations in the country until it removes all child sexual abuse content. A nonprofit fact-checker reported that related public videos had received at least 48 million views and drawn comments and shares from more than 26,000 accounts. TikTok had not formally responded to the demand.
On November 10, the Spanish government called on social media platform TikTok to suspend operations in the country until it removes all child sexual abuse content from the platform. The demand followed the release of an investigation by Spanish nonprofit fact-checking organization Maldita.es.
The TikTok logo on a phone screen.（VietVance）
Maldita.es found that related videos shared publicly on TikTok had received at least 48 million views, with more than 26,000 accounts commenting on and sharing them. Its report also identified 1,183 posts containing child pornography. These figures come from the organization’s investigation and are not government statistics for the platform as a whole.
Spain’s Minister of Youth, Sira Rego, has asked prosecutors and the national data protection authority to take action against TikTok. She said social media cannot become a “lawless zone.”
After the report was published, TikTok restricted searches by users in Spain for two keywords identified as leading to the content. Searches for those keywords from other European countries, however, could still find it. As of the original article’s publication, TikTok had not formally responded to the Spanish government’s demand.
European regulators are stepping up scrutiny of harmful and illegal content on major technology companies’ platforms. Several months earlier, the Spanish government had also called for investigations into X, Meta and TikTok over allegations that their platforms were spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse content.
Source: VietVance
