'Writing is on the wall' for social media firms after investigation found TikTok's 'addictive design' breaches EU law

'By constantly rewarding users with new content, certain design features of TikTok fuel the urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain of users into autopilot mode, the European Commission said.

The “writing is on the wall” for social media firms and the design of their platforms, Irish advocates have said, after the European Commission told TikTok its “addictive” features breach the law and risk multi-million-euro fines.

On Friday, the European Commission in preliminary findings of its investigation into Tiktok said such was its concern over the popular video-sharing platform it “needs to change the basic design of its service”, citing the impacts of endlessly scrolling, its push notifications and its recommender systems.