European Commission issues preliminary DSA findings against TikTok's 'For You' feed

The findings target the recommender, not any single video. The Commission said repeated exposure to clips about sadness, isolation or body image can have a "detrimental impact" on users' mental health. A fix would mean changing how the 'For You' feed ranks videos, not removing individual posts.

What Brussels found

Officials said the investigation focused on legal content, where a single video might not be problematic but the cumulative effect of watching many on one theme could damage mental health, The Record reported. "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. The Commission said TikTok had failed to properly assess these risks or set adequate safeguards.

The Commission found TikTok's existing mitigations wanting. It said a user who marks a video "not interested" is still served similar content, and that refreshing the feed brings only a brief respite, The Record reported. TikTok's controls, in other words, do not give users real command of their feed.

Brussels wants a redesign, not a takedown. It asks for more weight on users' explicit preferences. It wants less reliance on viewing time as a ranking signal, more accessible controls and regular testing of the algorithm.

Why the business model is the target

A Commission official told reporters the case is "addressing a business model" built primarily on user engagement, the Guardian reported. Politico reported that this is the first time the Commission has cited a platform's recommender system as the reason for a DSA breach. One official, granted anonymity, told Politico the Commission was "really tackling head-on the engagement-based recommender system model". The audience at stake is large: TikTok has 189 million users in the EU, the Guardian reported.

TikTok's answer

TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg and the Associated Press. It later rejected the findings. A spokesperson called the Commission's statements "fundamentally inaccurate" and said they distort the platform's architecture and its commitment to user safety. The company says its policies already prohibit content that promotes disordered eating and risky weight-management behaviour. It also cites take-up of the controls Brussels calls ineffective. More than 79 million users in the EU used the "not interested" or keyword filters in the first six months of 2026, according to the company.

A wider investigation

The proceedings opened on 19 February 2024 under the Digital Services Act, which requires large platforms to address illegal and harmful content. Friday's findings are one strand.

In February 2026 the Commission issued preliminary findings on addictive design, including infinite scroll and autoplay. TikTok called those "categorically false" and said it would challenge them. In July 2026 further preliminary findings covered minors' accounts and default public settings. In October 2025 the Commission preliminarily found TikTok and Meta in breach of researcher data-access obligations. In May 2025 it issued preliminary findings that TikTok's advertising repository fell short; in December 2025 binding commitments closed that strand. Officials said they spent two and a half years developing investigatory infrastructure for the case.

The Commission is running a parallel look at rabbit-hole effects on Meta's Facebook and Instagram.

What happens next

The findings are preliminary, not a final decision. TikTok can review the evidence and respond in writing before the Commission rules. If the breach is confirmed, a fine of up to 6% of worldwide annual turnover follows. Legal challenges would remain possible. The Molly Rose Foundation, set up in memory of 14-year-old Molly Russell, welcomed the findings and called on the UK regulator Ofcom to open an investigation into TikTok's algorithm.