Spain weighs TikTok suspension after study finds 48 million views of child abuse videos

Spanish government officials are evaluating the suspension of the social media platform TikTok after an independent investigation revealed the presence of over 1,000 child sexual abuse videos on the site. The report indicates that these videos collectively garnered 48 million views, sparking significant concern among regulators in Madrid.

The findings were produced by Maldita.es, a Spanish nonprofit foundation dedicated to fighting disinformation and enhancing transparency. During a 35 day monitoring period in September and October, the organization identified more than 20,000 profiles belonging to suspected paedophiles. Of these, 7,000 were active in the Spanish language, highlighting the platform's reach within the country.

Clara Jimenez Cruz, the cofounder and chief executive of Maldita.es, noted that the abuse is not concealed in obscure corners of the app. She stated that the material is readily accessible and difficult to miss for users navigating the platform.

The investigation, titled TikTok: Home to predators, involved analyzing user profiles, comments, and live broadcasts. The team also created its own accounts to observe how the platform's algorithm responded to different types of content. Within just three days, the algorithm suggested 19 livestreams featuring minors. In one specific morning, 15 such streams were recommended, all of which were recorded from school environments.

One notable example involved a livestream from a 10 year old girl in Spain who received suggestive comments from an adult male viewer. The report claimed that children were not only objectified but also encouraged to perform sexualized actions in exchange for digital gifts. These gifts, which appear as objects or animated animals, cost users real money, and the platform takes a portion of these transactions, although the exact percentage remains unclear.

The data from the study identified 231 profiles that posted 1,183 explicit items of content. Additionally, 780 accounts appeared to use the network to attract buyers, while more than 10,000 accounts sought exchanges of sexual images in the comment sections. When all categories were combined, the organization detected approximately 26,000 accounts of suspected paedophiles and has provided these details to the authorities.

Spain's Ministry of Youth and Children has requested urgent explanations from TikTok representatives in the country. Minister Sira Rego has demanded a meeting with the platform's team, and prosecutors have been asked to act on alleged cases of child sexual abuse. The ministry posted on X that it is raising the possibility of suspending the app, which is owned by the Chinese parent company ByteDance.

Maldita.es criticized the platform's response to the findings, noting that when the report was published on Monday, TikTok had only removed one tenth of the flagged content. The organization stated that only a quarter of illegal posts in Spain had been blocked, describing the material as something users might expect to find only on the dark web.

TikTok is currently facing multiple lawsuits and investigations regarding its protection of minors, accusations that the company has previously denied. On Friday, the European Union instructed TikTok to modify the design of its personalized For You feed, warning that the current structure is harmful and could lead to significant fines under digital content regulations.