The Spanish Ministry of Youth and Children has called for an urgent meeting with TikTok's leadership following an investigation that uncovered over 1,000 child sexual abuse videos on the platform, amassing a total of 48 million views. The Spanish nonprofit organization Maldita.es, which focuses on combating disinformation and promoting transparency, conducted the investigation and reportedly detected more than 20,000 profiles of suspected paedophiles during their 35-day monitoring of TikTok in September and October. The organization accused TikTok of amplifying content by minors in its algorithm and profiting from their abuse. Clara Jimenez Cruz, Maldita.es cofounder and CEO, stated that child abuse is not hidden away but easily accessible on the platform. During their investigation, dubbed "TikTok: Home to Predators," Maldita.es analyzed profiles, comments, and live broadcasts, creating accounts to see how the algorithm responded. They reported finding 19 livestreams by minors in just three days, including 15 within a single morning from schools. One instance involved a 10-year-old girl in Spain who received suggestive comments from an adult male during her live stream. The organization claimed that the platform then takes a portion of the money spent on TikTok gifts, although the exact amount remains unclear.
The Spanish Ministry of Youth and Children has demanded explanations from TikTok and is considering suspending the platform, which is owned by the Chinese parent company ByteDance. The ministry has also asked prosecutors to take action over alleged cases of child sexual abuse on TikTok and has demanded an urgent meeting with the platform's representatives in Spain. Maldita.es identified 231 profiles that posted 1,183 explicit items of content, 780 accounts that use the network to attract buyers, and more than 10,000 that ask for exchanges of sexual images in the comments. When all categories were collated, the foundation reported detecting some 26,000 accounts of suspected paedophiles and handed those details over to authorities. Maldita.es stated that material usually found only on the dark web is accessible on TikTok, raising questions about the effectiveness of TikTok's measures against child abuse and suggesting that the platform's features are being actively exploited by child predators.
Following the publication of Maldita.es' findings on Monday, TikTok reportedly removed only one-tenth of the content it had flagged and blocked only a quarter of illegal posts in Spain. The platform is currently facing numerous lawsuits and investigations over accusations that it has failed to protect minors, accusations it has denied. On Friday, the European Union warned TikTok to change the "harmful" design of its personalized "For You" feed or face large fines under the bloc's digital content rules.