Spain wants to ban TikTok over videos of child sexual abuse
A Spanish ministry has demanded an investigation into TikTok over content involving child sexual abuse
Spain's Minister for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, announced that her department has asked the prosecutor's office to open an investigation into TikTok. The reason was thousands of videos of child sexual abuse found on the platform, as well as communication between potential pedophiles.
As El País reports, the authorities are also considering the possibility of suspending TikTok's operations in Spain.
The trigger was an investigation by the organization Maldita.es, which spent 35 days gathering evidence and documented videos, live broadcasts, and messages indicating insufficient oversight of such content.
According to the organization, 1,183 videos with explicit scenes of child sexual abuse were found on TikTok, which had garnered 48 million views, as well as more than 26,000 profiles of potential pedophiles who commented on and distributed these materials. Maldita.es also filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office.
The ministry emphasized that the facts uncovered require an urgent and coordinated response from national and European authorities. They also point to serious shortcomings in TikTok's moderation and recommendation mechanisms.
Rego requested an urgent meeting with the platform's representatives in Spain in order to obtain explanations and learn about measures to resolve the problem. Despite the removal of some of the videos, most of the accounts that published such content remain active.
