Thomas REGNIER's Recent LinkedIn Posts

Today, the European Commission is launching a formal investigation into Shein under the Digital Services Act. We suspect the company to have breached the DSA in three areas:   📌 A highly addictive design for our consumers, such as rewards programmes and the gamification of the service; 📌 A lack of transparency on recommender systems; 📌 The sale of illegal products. This includes weapons and products that could constitute child sexual abuse material, such as child-like sex dolls. Some statistics: 145 million consumers in the EU use Shein for onine shopping. Mystery shopping has tested 27 toys sold on Shein for children under 3 years old. Guess what? All tested were in breach of EU law. So the message is clear: Shein has to take its responsability to protect consumers in the EU. This starts with properly analysing and mitigating the risks it poses. The Commission will now conduct an in-depth investigation and we invite Shein to cooperate throughout the process. More information: https://lnkd.in/e-qXyeGA

Today, the European Commission has fined X with €120 million for breaching the Digital Services Act. This is the first ever fine under the DSA. X has indeed breached its transparency obligations in the following areas: 📌 X's blue checkmark deceives users. Anyone can pay to obtain the 'verified' status. X does not meaningfully verify who is behind. Users cannot verify the authenticity of the accounts and the content they are engaging with. 📌 X's ad repository does not work. It obscures information on advertisements, such as who is paying for the ad. 📌 X is not allowing effective data access for researchers. This is a proportionate fine. Proportional to the duration, the gravity, the impact and the recurrence of these breaches. Today, we have also accepted TikTok’s commitments to make its advertising repository work. We have made these commitments legally binding and will now monitor their effective implementation. What do these two cases show? Our objective is not a fine. When platforms engage constructively with the Commission and offer solid commitments, we accept them. If they do not, we take action. Because DSA compliance is not an option. It’s an obligation. And EVP Henna Virkkunen is very serious about enforcement. More info: 👇🏻 X: https://lnkd.in/euP-8t6t TikTok: https://lnkd.in/ezzKHVzF

Today, the European Commission preliminarily found TikTok's addictive design in breach of the Digital Services Act. Some statistics: TikTok reaches 170 million users in the EU - many of these are children. TikTok is by far the most used platform after midnight by children between the ages of 13 to 18. 7% of children aged 12–15 spend 4-5 hours daily on TikTok. These are alarming facts. How can all of this happen? Because TikTok offers infinite scrolling, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommender systems. These features lead to the compulsive use of the app, poses a major risk for users and their mental health, especially children. TikTok has not effectively assessed nor mitigated such risks and harms. Screentime management and parental controls are not working. Let's be clear: TikTok now has to clean up its house and change the design of its service to effectively protect citizens in the European Union. If not, it faces a potential fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover. More info: link.europa.eu/9fTwmJ