Spain threatens TikTok closure after discovery of 1,182 child abuse videos
The organisation Maldita.es discovered over one thousand posts containing child sexual abuse material on TikTok that accumulated 48 million views. The Children's Ministry has asked prosecutors to open an investigation whilst the Government considers shutting down the platform.
Investigation reveals thousands of abuse videos on TikTok
Spain is considering closing TikTok following an investigation that uncovered more than 1,000 videos containing child sexual abuse material circulating on the platform, according to The Olive Press. The data verification organisation Maldita.es published a report on Monday in which it claims to have located 1,182 public posts containing such explicit content.
These videos and reels accumulated a total of 48 million views. The Chinese social media network removed only 10 per cent of them, according to Maldita.es. The Children's Ministry and Maldita.es have jointly requested that prosecutors open an investigation, whilst the Government is considering the option of closing the platform in Spain, according to El País.
Response from authorities
Sira Rego, the Children's Minister, wrote on Bluesky that the facts documented by Maldita.es regarding child sexual abuse on TikTok are "extremely serious". She added that the ministry has requested the Public Prosecution Service to open an investigation and that it has just convened an urgent meeting with representatives of the platform in Spain.
Maldita.es spent 35 days scanning TikTok for child abuse content, between 11 September and 15 October. The analysis found that the explicit posts came from 231 accounts, of which 136 remained active on 15 October, despite TikTok's policy stating that such accounts should be permanently blocked.
More than 26,000 accounts shared or commented on the videos and reels whilst they remained available on the platform.
TikTok's defence
TikTok rejected the allegations, arguing that Maldita.es refused to share the explicit material so that the platform could verify its findings. In a statement issued on Monday, the social media network said: "As bad actors evolve their methods, a collective response is vital. We urge Maldita to share its findings fully. Their refusal prevents us from locating and removing this material and prevents reporting to police."
Maldita.es replied that sending child sexual abuse videos by email, regardless of purpose, could be "equivalent to distributing that material or facilitating access to it". The organisation added that it had reported a sample of what it found through TikTok's official reporting channels.
Background
This is not the first time TikTok has faced similar allegations. In 2022, a Forbes investigation revealed that adult users were urging minors to perform sexually suggestive acts during live streams in exchange for virtual gifts. The report led to ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, to open an internal investigation which confirmed that adults were contacting young broadcasters asking them to undress.
Subsequent United States court documents revealed that hundreds of thousands of minors accessed TikTok LIVE despite age restrictions, raising fresh questions about what the company knew of the problem.
TikTok has more than one billion monthly active users worldwide, whilst its Spanish audience has grown to 26 million monthly active users, according to the platform's most recent transparency figures in the EU.
Source: The Olive Press