Spain weighs suspending TikTok over child sexual abuse material

Youth and Children’s Minister Sira Rego announced on Monday that her ministry had asked public prosecutors to investigate. She also requested an urgent meeting with TikTok’s representatives in Spain to hear the company’s explanation and find out what action it plans to take to protect children.

In its letter to prosecutors, the ministry asked them to ‘take the necessary measures to ensure the comprehensive protection of any children and young people who may be affected’. It said the government was ‘considering the possibility of suspending the platform’s services in Spain, should this be deemed appropriate’.

Ministry sources told Spanish media that the findings were ‘extremely serious and require an immediate and coordinated response from all the relevant authorities, at both national and European level’. They also pointed to serious shortcomings in how TikTok detects and moderates content and raised concerns about the role its recommendation systems played in spreading the material.

What the investigation found

Over 35 days, Maldita.es documented videos, livestreams and messages and identified more than 26,000 profiles it linked to suspected activity involving child sexual abuse material. Researchers found users commenting on and sharing the material, as well as instances of users soliciting images from children.

Around 7,700 users identified in the investigation were reportedly Spanish-speaking. Some hosted livestreams that drew hundreds of participants, with some participants requesting sexual content.

‘Material you would expect to find only on the dark web is on TikTok,’ Maldita.es said. The foundation, which has published two previous investigations into child sexual exploitation on the platform, has also referred its findings to Spanish prosecutors.

TikTok removed five of 50 videos flagged by researchers

To test TikTok’s reporting system, Maldita.es flagged a sample of 50 videos containing child sexual abuse material. TikTok removed five and restricted access to a further 13 in Spain alone. Three days after the reports were filed, 40% of the accounts that had posted the videos were still active.

‘The findings of this investigation seriously call into question the effectiveness of TikTok’s measures against child abuse, and also point directly to its platform features being actively exploited by child predators,’ the foundation said.

Maldita.es said TikTok had asked it for more information but had yet to answer its questions about safeguards for minors, the failures identified by researchers or the illegal material found on the platform. 

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, faces lawsuits and investigations over allegations that it has failed to protect minors. The company has frequently denied those allegations. El País reported that internal TikTok documents made public through a US court case in 2022 showed the company had acknowledged a problem involving child sexual exploitation on the platform.

In a separate regulatory action on Friday, the European Union told TikTok to change the design of its personalised For You feed, which it described as ‘harmful’, or risk substantial fines under the bloc’s digital services rules.