THE CRUNCH
The European Commission has issued a preliminary ruling finding that TikTok breached the Digital Services Act by exposing users to a “rabbit hole effect”: endless, repetitive streams of content on themes such as body image, sadness and isolation that can worsen anxiety, sadness and eating disorders. The regulator says the platform’s safeguards are ineffective, and TikTok must change the design of its For You feed or face fines of up to 6% of its global annual turnover. TikTok, which has 189 million EU users, disputes the findings.
Officials said the investigation focused on legal content, where a single video might not be problematic, but the cumulative effect of scores of similar videos could damage mental health. The safeguards meant to break these loops fell short: tapping “not interested” on a video about eating patterns still surfaced similar diet and body image content, and refreshing the feed offered only brief respite. “Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice president for tech policy.
TikTok rejected the ruling, saying in a statement that the Commission’s claims are “fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform’s architecture and our commitment to user safety”. The company points to its policies banning content that promotes disordered eating and says more than 79 million EU users used its “not interested” or keyword filters in the first six months of 2026.
The findings are part of an investigation opened in February 2024 under the Digital Services Act, the EU law requiring large platforms to prevent a range of harms. The Commission has already found TikTok violated the rules over “addictive design” features such as infinite scroll. Per Politico, this is the first time the Commission has cited a recommendation algorithm itself as the reason for a breach. TikTok can now examine the file and mount a defence, and could avoid a fine by agreeing to change its recommender system. The Molly Rose Foundation welcomed the findings and urged the UK regulator Ofcom to open its own investigation.