The European Commission has officially accused the platform of using addictive design features. Infinite scrolling and automatic recommendations are under a potential ban. Why the app’s design has become more dangerous than the content itself explained in El.kz material
Scrolling on “autopilot”
In recent days, the European Commission issued a preliminary finding that TikTok’s design violates the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
According to the commission, the constant flow of content puts "the brain of users into 'autopilot mode'," potentially resulting in compulsive behavior and reducing users' self-control.
Design as a “dark pattern”
The Commission said that TiKTok ignored signs of compulsive use, including by overlooking that minors are using the platform at night and that users are opening the app at a very frequent rate.
Screen time management tools and parental controls were a focus for the Commission, which said they don’t work.
f it fails to satisfy the Commission, the app could face fines up to 6 percent of annual revenue. TikTok can now defend itself against the preliminary findings and examine the evidence against it.
Swipe era
Today, TikTok faces a choice between radically changing its architecture under legal pressure and continuing the fight for every second of users’ attention. However, the fundamental choice lies neither with regulators in Brussels nor with tech corporations.
The human brain evolved over millions of years in conditions of information scarcity and has now encountered a technology capable of generating an endless stream of pleasure in a second. Modern society has become the first generation on which this large-scale psychological experiment is effectively being conducted.
The future development of the internet may move toward creating a space for personal growth. The European Union’s battle against TikTok’s design is merely the first attempt to set systemic boundaries in a digital environment where technological convenience has come into conflict with human biological limits.