The European Union says TikTok is not following the rules for online content. They say TikTok is not clear enough about the adverts that people see on the app.

The EU Commission said that TikTok's ad library doesn't meet the rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to early results of their investigation.

The Commission said that ad information is very important for researchers. It helps them find fake ads and other harmful campaigns, like those with false information, especially during elections.

The DSA is a set of rules that wants to make social media better and keep people safe from things like fake news that affects elections. Social media sites need to be clear about online adverts, like telling people why they see a certain advert and who paid for it.

The Commission said TikTok isn't giving enough information about what the ads show, who they are for, and who is paying for them. They said it's hard to search for ads using this information, which makes the tool not very helpful.

TikTok said they are looking at what the Commission found and will continue to follow the rules.

"We agree with what the rules are trying to do, and we are making our tools to show ads better. But we don't agree with everything the Commission says. We also think they are giving advice in early reports, not in clear rules everyone can see," the company said.

Henna Virkkunen said that problems with the advertising database make it difficult to fully check the risks of how ads are targeted. She is in charge of technology, security and democracy for the commission.

Virkkunen said that it's very important to be clear about online adverts – who pays for them and who they are trying to reach. This is important to protect people. She said that people should know who is sending the messages they see, whether it's to protect elections, health, or to stop people being tricked by fake adverts.

TikTok can now respond before the Commission makes its final decision. This decision could mean TikTok has to pay a fine of up to 6% of its yearly income from all over the world.

TikTok is being looked at by the EU to see if it did enough to handle problems that could have affected the presidential election in Romania. The election had issues last year because people said there were problems with the voting and that Russia interfered.