Spain demands TikTok suspension until child abuse material is removed

Spain’s government has demanded that ​TikTok suspend its operations in the country until it eliminates child sexual abuse material, it said on Tuesday, after a media ⁠report documented 1,183 explicit posts on the platform with millions of views.

Youth Minister Sira Rego, whose ministry cannot singlehandedly ban the platform in Spain, has ⁠appealed to prosecutors and ​the ⁠Data Protection Agency to take action against the social media company, according to ⁠a statement by the ministry.

“Social media cannot be ​lawless ⁠territory,” Rego said.

The ‌request comes months after Pedro Sanchez’s government requested a probe into X, Meta and TikTok for ‌allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse ‌material, as European regulators intensify scrutiny of big tech over harmful and illegal content.

TikTok did not immediately respond ⁠to a Reuters request for comment.

Spanish fact-checking nonprofit Maldita.es on Monday published an investigation revealing that videos of explicit child sexual abuse had been viewed on the platform at least 48 million times, with over 26,000 profiles commenting on ‌and sharing the material.

The organization published a ​follow-up story on Tuesday evening stating that ‌TikTok had restricted ⁠two of the search terms that Maldita.es’s ⁠investigation identified as pathways to child sexual abuse content for…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/world