European Union regulators have formally accused TikTok of contravening digital content regulations, citing insufficient transparency regarding advertisements displayed to its user base.

Preliminary findings from the European Commission's investigation indicate that TikTok's ad repository falls short of the Digital Services Act (DSA) standards, the EU executive body has asserted.

The Commission asserted that advertising databases are indispensable for researchers to identify fraudulent advertisements and hybrid threat campaigns, encompassing coordinated disinformation activities and deceptive ads, particularly concerning electoral processes.

Encompassing a broad spectrum of stipulations, the Digital Services Act (DSA) seeks to sanitise social media platforms and safeguard users from multifaceted risks, notably disinformation campaigns that could jeopardise electoral processes; central to this is the imposition of transparency obligations regarding digital advertising, compelling platforms to elucidate to users the rationale behind ad targeting and disclose funding sources.

The Commission asserted that TikTok fails to furnish requisite details regarding ad content, target demographics, and sponsor identification; moreover, the database's limitations preclude comprehensive ad searches based on these criteria, thus compromising the tool's efficacy.

TikTok stated that they are scrutinising the Commission's conclusions and are still dedicated to fulfilling their responsibilities under the DSA.

"Although we endorse the regulation's objectives and are committed to enhancing our ad transparency resources, we take issue with certain interpretations put forth by the Commission, observing that guidance is being disseminated through preliminary conclusions rather than explicit, publicly accessible directives," the company asserted in a statement.

Henna Virkkunen, the commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, asserted that the ad database's limitations preclude a comprehensive evaluation of the potential hazards stemming from its ad targeting mechanisms.

Virkkunen asserted that the transparency of online advertising, encompassing its financial backers and audience-targeting methodologies, is paramount to the protection of the public interest. She argued that citizens are entitled to know the provenance of the messages they are exposed to, be it in the context of safeguarding the integrity of democratic elections, protecting public health, or shielding consumers from fraudulent advertisements.

TikTok has been afforded an opportunity to respond before the Commission renders its definitive judgment, potentially incurring a penalty of up to 6% of its annual worldwide turnover.

In a parallel EU inquiry, TikTok faces scrutiny regarding its alleged failure to mitigate risks surrounding Romania's presidential election, which was significantly destabilized last year by claims of electoral irregularities and Russian interference.