The Spanish government has placed the social media platform TikTok under scrutiny. The government took action after the detection of 1,183 obscene posts containing child abuse content that had been viewed millions of times.
The government has demanded that the social media platform TikTok suspend its operations in the country until it completely removes content related to child abuse.
Minister of Youth and Children Sira Rego stated that they have applied to the prosecutor's office and the Data Protection Agency to take action against TikTok, saying, "Social media cannot be a lawless space."
The Spanish fact-checking organization Maldita.es revealed in a study published yesterday that videos containing child abuse had been viewed at least 48 million times on the platform, and noted that more than 26 thousand accounts had commented on or shared the content in question. Following the publication of the research, TikTok restricted two search terms that allowed access to child abuse content for users in Spain. However, it was noted that the same content could still be accessed through searches made from other European countries.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's government had previously requested the initiation of investigations into X, Meta, and TikTok on the grounds that they were disseminating content related to child abuse created by artificial intelligence.
News Source: 12punto
