French court probes TikTok on algorithms' risks regarding suicide

PARIS (Reuters) -French judicial authorities said on Tuesday they had opened an investigation into Chinese social media platform TikTok and the risks that its algorithms could push young people to suicide.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said the probe was in response to a French parliament committee's request to open a criminal inquiry into TikTok's possible responsibility for endangering the lives of its young users.

The committee sought to examine the psychological effects of TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, on young people after seven families accused it in a 2024 lawsuit of exposing their children to content pushing them to commit suicide. Social media companies have faced numerous U.S. lawsuits as well that allege their algorithms have helped fuel mental health problems among teenagers.

Beccuau said a report by the committee had noted "insufficient moderation of TikTok, its ease of access by minors and its sophisticated algorithm, which could push vulnerable individuals toward suicide by quickly trapping them in a loop of dedicated content".

A TikTok spokesperson said in an email to Reuters: "We strongly refute the accusations and legal grounds referred to in the press release of the Paris prosecutor and will vigorously defend our record."

"With more than 50 preset features and settings designed specifically to support the safety and well-being of teens, and 9 in 10 violative videos removed before they're ever viewed, we invest heavily in safe and age-appropriate teen experiences."

The Paris police cybercrime brigade will look into what the prosecutor called the offence of providing a platform for "propaganda in favour of products, objects, or methods recommended as means of committing suicide", which is punishable by three years' imprisonment.

PARLIAMENT REPORT SAID TIKTOK "ENDANGERS LIVES OF YOUNG USERS"

The parliamentary committee's chairman said on September 11 that TikTok had deliberately endangered the health and lives of its users and therefore referred the matter to the court. 

TikTok said at the time it "categorically rejects the Commission's misleading presentation, which seeks to make our company a scapegoat for issues that concern the entire sector and society as a whole".

The prosecutor's office said that besides the parliamentary report, the inquiry would also consider findings from a 2023 Senate report highlighting risks involving freedom of expression, data collection and offensive algorithms.

It said it will also review a 2023 Amnesty International report warning that TikTok algorithms are addictive and pose a risk of self-harm among young people, and a February 2025 report by French state agency Viginum, which tracks foreign digital interference and warned that public opinion could be manipulated in elections.

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(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Richard Chang)