The EU has warned TikTok that it should reform its “addictive design” and would pay hefty fines after discovering that the video-sharing platform had violated its online safety regulations.

It is after an inquiry into the Chinese-owned application by the European Commission started in February 2024.

In its early findings, the Commission indicated TikTok had not sufficiently evaluated the potential damage of certain features, such as autoplay, on the well-being of users, such as children, and had not put in place the necessary security to address the dangers.

The findings were categorically “false and totally meritless,” and the spokesperson of the TikTok company told the BBC that the company would fight them.

The platform has been requested to react to the findings of the EU. Based on the performance of this step, the Commission might impose a fine against TikTok ranging between 6 per cent of the total global annual turnover of the company, which is estimated to be tens of billions.

EU technology head Henna Virkkunen told journalists, “TikTok would have to reform the structure of its service in Europe in order to escape being fined.”

The Commission made multiple proposals of what could be done by the platform, such as adding so-called breaks of screen time when users are consuming it at night, as well as changing its algorithms, which present users with personalised content.

It also proposed that TikTok should turn off the so-called endless scroll, which enables individuals to scroll through the platform quickly, viewing millions of videos.

According to Virkkunen, “the Digital Services Act holds the platforms accountable for the impact they can possibly have on users.”

“In Europe, we impose our laws to defend our children and our citizens on the internet.

Professor Sonia Livingstone at the London School of Economics stated that although TikTok had implemented some features in order to enhance the internet safety of its user community, it did not suffice to meet the standards stipulated in the EU.”

“Young people are demanding such changes,” she said.

One of them complains that the site does not focus on their well-being, but rather on profit.

And social media authority, Matt Navarra, added that the use of the word addictive was “frequently misused” in these discussions, but the findings of the Commission were apparently based on real behavioural science.

He explained that it was a “seismic change” in how the regulators were approaching social media sites.

“This,” he said, “was the first occasion on which a major regulator had complained that the design was the problem.”

“No longer is it toxic content, but it is a toxic design.”

‘Warning shot’

The EU is not the first organisation to investigate the operations of large technology companies and threaten to impose fines on them.

In December 2024, it initiated an independent inquiry into TikTok on the alleged foreign interference during the Romanian presidential elections.

In January, it also initiated an investigation into Elon Musk-owned X on the claims that its AI tool Grok was used to generate sexualised images of real individuals.

In the meantime, in December 2025, the EU fined X €120m (£105m) over its blue tick badges, claiming they are also deceiving users since the firm is not sufficiently auditing who is using the account.

TikTok social media analyst Paolo Pescatore described the most recent announcement as a wake-up call to TikTok – and a wake-up call to all social media networks.

He said that the “market is no longer based on maximising engagement, but rather on engineering responsibility,” which is now enforceable by regulators.