On Wednesday, the Spanish prosecutor’s office announced the launch of an investigation into TikTok over suspected offenses related to the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse material. Rapporteur reports, writes UNN.
Details
The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the investigation was launched following a complaint filed by the fact-checking outlet Maldita.es.
We warned about this long ago: impunity on social media is over. No platform is above the law
This week, Maldita.es investigators published a report identifying more than a thousand posts containing child sexual abuse material on TikTok. These posts received millions of views.
The report caused a significant public outcry in Spain. Minister for Youth Sira Rego promptly urged the prosecutor’s office to take action against TikTok and invited company representatives to an "urgent meeting."
TikTok has not yet publicly responded to the accusations.
On Tuesday, the minister called on the platform to suspend operations in Spain until the relevant material was removed.
Rego also appealed to the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD), asking it to suspend the platform’s operations.
On Wednesday, the agency announced that it would pass all known information to the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), since TikTok’s European headquarters are located in Ireland. If necessary, the information will also be forwarded to the European Data Protection Board and the European Commission.
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