The European Union Commission on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, asked the social media platforms to share information about the parameters they used to recommend content to users.
According to Reuters, the EU Commission requested information from YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok about their recommendation algorithms in order to understand how much risk these platforms are causing to the electoral process, mental health, and child protection.
The EU Commission said in a statement that it has made a request under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to "also concern the platforms' measures to mitigate the potential influence of their recommender systems on the spread of illegal content, such as promoting illegal drugs and hate speech.”
Moreover, the commission asked for additional information from TikTok about the measures it has adopted to stop people from misusing the platform and to lower the public discussion and election-related risks.
The tech firms are required to provide the information by November 15, 2024, after which the commission will decide the next steps.
To note, this came after the EU asked the big tech companies, including AliExpress, TikTok, and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, to do more in order to protect their platforms from harmful and illegal content and activities.
