Spain demands that TikTok suspend operations until child sexual abuse material gone

Spain’s government has demanded that TikTok suspend its operations in Spain until it eliminates child ​sexual abuse material, it said on Tuesday, ‌after a media report documented 1,183 explicit posts on the platform with millions of views.Youth Minister Sira Rego, whose ministry ​cannot singlehandedly ban the platform in Spain, has ​appealed to prosecutors and the Data Protection ⁠Agency to take action against the social media company, ​according to a statement by the ministry.“Social media cannot ​be lawless territory,” Rego said.The request comes months after Sanchez’s government requested a probe into X, Meta and TikTok for allegedly ​spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, as European ​regulators intensify scrutiny of big tech over harmful and illegal content.TikTok ‌did ⁠not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.Spanish fact-checking nonprofit Maldita.es on Monday published an investigation revealing that videos of explicit child sexual abuse had ​been viewed on ​the platform ⁠at least 48 million times, with over 26,000 profiles commenting on and sharing ​the material.The organisation published a follow-up story ​on ⁠Tuesday evening stating that TikTok had restricted two of the search terms that Maldita.es’s investigation identified as pathways ⁠to ​child sexual abuse content for ​users in Spain, but that searches from other European countries still led ​to the same content....