Spain demands that TikTok suspend operations until child sexual abuse material gone

Spain's government has demanded that ​TikTok suspend its operations ​in Spain 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 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 organisation 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 users in Spain, but that searches from other European countries still ‌led to ‌the same content.