Poland urges Brussels to probe TikTok over AI-generated content

WARSAW, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Poland has asked the European Commission to investigate TikTok after the social media platform hosted AI-generated content including calls for Poland to withdraw from the EU, it said on Tuesday, adding that the content was almost certainly Russian disinformation.

"The disclosed content poses a threat to public order, information security, and the integrity of democratic processes in Poland and across the European Union," Deputy Digitalization Minister Dariusz Standerski said in a letter sent to the Commission. 

"The nature of the narratives, the manner in which they are distributed, and the use of synthetic audiovisual materials indicate that the platform is failing to comply with the obligations imposed on it as a Very Large Online Platform (VLOP)," he added. 

A Polish government spokesperson said on Tuesday the content was undoubtedly Russian disinformation as the recordings contained Russian syntax.

TikTok, representatives of the Commission and of the Russian embassy in Warsaw did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. 

EU countries are taking measures to head off any foreign state attempts to influence elections and local politics after warning of Russian-sponsored espionage and sabotage. Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in foreign elections.   

Last year, the Commission opened formal proceedings against social media firm TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, over its suspected failure to limit election interference, notably in the Romanian presidential vote in November 2024.

Poland called on the Commission to initiate proceedings in connection with suspected breaches of the bloc's sweeping Digital Services Act, which regulates how the world's biggest social media companies operate in Europe. 

Under the Act, large internet platforms like X, Facebook, TikTok and others must moderate and remove harmful content like hate speech, racism or xenophobia. If they do not, the Commission can impose fines of up to 6% of their worldwide annual turnover.

(Reporting by Anna Koper and Alan Charlish; Additional reporting by Bart Meijer in Brussels; Editing by Hugh Lawson)