ZURICH, November 10 (AJP) -Spain’s youth ministry has asked the country’s data protection authority to temporarily suspend TikTok after an investigation identified more than 26,000 accounts suspected of involvement in child sexual exploitation on the platform.
Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego announced the request Tuesday after meeting TikTok representatives, escalating a warning issued a day earlier. The ministry also asked the company to consider voluntarily suspending its Spanish operations while the allegations are investigated.
Rego acknowledged that her ministry cannot order a shutdown itself. No suspension order was announced.
The move follows a 35-day investigation by Maldita.es, a Spanish nonprofit fact-checking organization, which examined profiles, comments and livestreams between September 11 and October 15.
Researchers identified 231 accounts that posted 1,183 items containing what the organization described as explicit child sexual abuse material. The posts accumulated about 48 million views. Another 780 accounts allegedly sought buyers, while more than 10,000 requested exchanges of sexual images in comments.
Across the categories examined, Maldita.es identified about 26,000 suspected accounts.
The researchers found more than 1,000 videos showing child sexual abuse, viewed a combined 48 million times. A network of 231 profiles had posted 1,183 explicit items, while another 780 accounts were used to attract buyers.
More than 10,000 accounts asked other users in comment sections to trade sexual images. Maldita.es identified about 26,000 suspected paedophile accounts in total, including 7,000 in Spain. The group handed the details to the authorities.
Some of the most troubling findings involved TikTok’s own recommendations. Within three days, the app suggested 19 livestreams by minors to the researchers’ accounts, 15 of them in a single morning. All appeared to have been filmed at schools.
TikTok’s own system pushed the videos toward users who had not gone looking for them.
Livestreams are especially hard to monitor because they happen in real time and usually disappear once they end.
TikTok removed only about one in 10 of the posts that Maldita.es reported, according to the group, and blocked about a quarter of the illegal content in Spain.
TikTok has denied that it fails to protect children.
The Spanish investigation adds to TikTok’s problems in Europe. On Friday, the European Commission said TikTok’s main video feed breaks EU law by pulling users into “rabbit holes” of harmful content. The feed is called For You. If the findings are confirmed, the company could be fined up to 6 percent of its global turnover.
TikTok says 189 million people in the EU use the app every month.
Spain has pushed hard for tighter rules to protect children online. Earlier this year, it said it would investigate social media companies over AI-generated child abuse material.
Suspending a major social media platform would be highly unusual in a democracy. India banned TikTok in 2020, but mainly over national security concerns rather than child safety.
Any suspension in Spain would likely face court challenges. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the European Commission has the main responsibility for policing large online platforms.
AJP Takeaways
- Spain is considering suspending TikTok after Spanish nonprofit Maldita.es found about 26,000 suspected paedophile accounts on the app, including 7,000 in Spain.
- Spanish Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego asked prosecutors to investigate and requested an urgent meeting with TikTok’s representatives in Spain.
- Spain’s TikTok investigation comes days after the European Commission said TikTok’s For You feed breaks EU law by pulling users into harmful “rabbit holes.”
- Tags: Spain, TikTok, Maldita.es, Sira Rego, Ministry of Youth and Children, child protection, European Commission, Digital Services Act, For You feed, social media regulation, India
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