MADRID — The Spanish government is weighing a potential suspension of TikTok after an independent investigation revealed more than 20,000 suspected paedophile profiles operating on the platform.
The alarming findings were published by the Spanish anti-disinformation foundation Maldita.es, which monitored the video-sharing platform over a 35-day period in September and October. According to the report, researchers detected over 20,000 accounts linked to suspected paedophiles, with roughly 7,000 of them operating in Spanish.
The investigation also catalogued more than 1,000 videos containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM), which had accumulated a staggering 48 million views combined.
"Material you would expect to find only on the dark web is on TikTok," the Maldita.es association stated, accusing the platform of failing to prevent predators from exploiting its features to access abuse material or solicit images from minors.
Investigators reported that TikTok removed only a small fraction of the flagged content and blocked just 26 percent of illegal posts reported in Spain.
In response to the damning findings, Spain’s Ministry of Youth and Children has called for an urgent meeting with TikTok’s leadership in the country.
The controversy adds mounting pressure to TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, which face ongoing legal challenges and scrutiny worldwide regarding child safety. The development also follows a recent warning from the European Union, which instructed TikTok to alter its personalized "For You" feed design or face substantial fines under the bloc's strict digital content regulations.
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