The European Union has started an investigation into TikTok’s Lite app, expressing worries about potential harm to users’ mental health, especially minors, due to a reward feature.
This move comes as the app’s Lite version rolled out in France and Spain this March.
TikTok Lite is a smaller version of the popular TikTok app, taking up less memory in a smartphone and made to perform over slower internet connections.
TikTok last week failed to provide a risk assessment for the spinoff app by an April 18 deadline, the commission said, demanding the company now hand it over by Tuesday.
It is threatening to impose interim measures including suspending the rewards programme in the European Union “pending the assessment of its safety”.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has until Wednesday to present a formal defence against such a measure.
The commission also warned if TikTok failed to reply to the request, it could impose fines of up to one percent of its total annual income or of its global turnover and periodic penalties up to five percent of its average daily income or annual turnover worldwide.
