Milan: Italy’s competition authority has opened an investigation against Chinese application TikTok for allegedly violating rules and regulations. According to the allegations, the application allegedly violated the rules by publishing dangerous content about suicide, self-harm and malnutrition.
According to the agency’s statement, the investigation launched on Tuesday includes the Irish unit responsible for TikTok’s European customer relations as well as its British and Italian divisions.
Chinese company ByteDance’s TikTok application has denied any wrongdoing and assured to cooperate with the investigation.
TikTok is facing tough times globally due to the Chinese government’s increasing global concerns about the location and access to data of the application’s users.
The Italian agency said that there are several videos on the platform in which young people are harming themselves. The trend has recently emerged from challenges such as the viral ‘French Scar’ challenge in which facial scars are created.
A TikTok spokesperson has denied all the allegations, saying the company does not allow the display or promotion of content related to dangerous activities and challenges, suicide, self-harm or eating unhealthy foods.
