EU preliminarily finds TikTok For You feed breaches DSA

As of 7:26 p.m. ET, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026

The European Commission said Friday, Nov. 6, that it has preliminarily found TikTok in breach of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) over the "rabbit hole effect" of its "For You" feed, and that the company needs to change the feed's design.

The findings are not a final decision. TikTok can respond before the Commission rules, and the company rejected the findings as "fundamentally inaccurate."

What the Commission found

The more a user interacts with a certain type of content, the more the For You algorithm recommends similar videos, the Commission said. That design can be harmful when the repeated content is about sadness, isolation or body image, and such "rabbit holes" can hurt users' mental health, "especially that of vulnerable adults and minors," it said.

The Commission said it preliminarily found that TikTok did not adequately assess how its algorithm may lead users into rabbit holes. It also found that TikTok's existing safeguards are not effective. Tools meant to diversify recommendations do not sufficiently reduce how often similar content appears, and pressing "not interested" "may not be enough to change the content feed," the Commission said. It said the algorithm puts viewing time ahead of a user's choice to see less of certain content.

At this stage, the Commission said, TikTok should rely more on users' explicit preferences, stop using viewing time to recommend content, make user controls easier to find and use, and test its algorithm regularly.

"Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from," said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission's executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

TikTok's response

"The Commission has made a series of statements that are fundamentally inaccurate and distort our platform's architecture and our commitment to user safety," a TikTok spokesperson told Euronews. "We have a strong record of protecting our community while giving users direct and intuitive control over their content experience."

What happens next

TikTok can examine the Commission's investigation file and reply in writing, and the European Board for Digital Services will be consulted, the Commission said. If its views are confirmed, the Commission may issue a non-compliance decision with a fine of up to 6% of TikTok's total worldwide annual turnover. The Commission said the findings "do not prejudge the outcome of the investigation."

The findings are part of a wider DSA case against TikTok. The Commission issued preliminary findings on addictive design in February 2026, on protection of minors in July 2026, and on researchers' access to public data in October 2025. A separate part of the case, on advertising transparency, was closed through binding commitments in December 2025. When earlier findings were issued, TikTok called them "categorically false," CNBC reported. Ireland's digital services regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, supported the investigation, the Commission said.