Brussels, Belgium:

The European Union on Friday added Chinese-founded online retailer Shein to its list of digital companies that are big enough to come under stricter safety curbs.

The company joins Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and others on a list of “very large online platforms” which have more than 45 million monthly active users in the European Union.

From the end of August — four months after the designation — Shein will have to abide by tougher rules set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA), one of the EU’s landmark laws against online platforms.

They include implementing measures to “protect consumers from purchasing unsafe or illegal goods, with particular focus on preventing the sale and distribution of products that could be harmful to minors,” the European Commission said.

Shein, which is headquartered in Singapore, has said it has around 108 million monthly active users in the 27-nation EU.

Reacting to the announcement, Shein said it would comply with the rules.

“We share the commission’s ambition to ensure consumers in the EU can shop online with peace of mind, and we are committed to playing our part,” said Leonard Lin, global head of public affairs at Shein.

Beyond the EU, Shein has faced criticism over alleged exploitation of low-paid factory workers and arguments it promotes hyperconsumerism and causes damage to the environment.

EU probes

Brussels has flexed its legal muscle against the world’s biggest digital platforms, launching investigations against TikTok, X and Chinese retailer AliExpress.

Another Chinese shopping app, Temu, is expected to be added to the EU’s list after announcing in April that it has around 75 million monthly active users after entering the EU market a year ago.

Under the DSA, the platforms must assess the specific risks posed to Europeans’ rights and safety by the content they publish — or the products on sale in the case of online marketplaces like Amazon and Shein — and submit a report to regulators.

They must also provide an external audit once a year to verify compliance.

The largest platforms are also subject to increased transparency requirements, with the obligation to provide access to their data to researchers approved by Brussels.

The EU has taken tougher action against China-linked companies in recent months.

Popular video sharing app TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has faced intense scrutiny in the EU — and beyond.

While it faces a ban in the United States, TikTok is the subject of two investigations by the European Commission over alleged harm to minors.

On Wednesday, TikTok suspended its reward programme on its spinoff Lite app after the commission started a probe into its possible addictive features.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

The European Commission has issued a set aft of guidelines for digital giants to tackle risks to elections including disinformation. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

The EU called on Facebook, TikTok and other tech titans on March 26 to crack down on deepfakes and other AI-generated content by using clear labels ahead of Europe-wide polls in June.

The recommendation is part of a raft of guidelines published under a landmark content law by the European Commission for digital giants to tackle risks to elections including disinformation. The EU executive body has unleashed a string of measures to clamp down on big tech, especially regarding content moderation.

Its biggest tool is the Digital Services Act (DSA) under which the bloc has designated 22 digital platforms as “very large” including Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and X.

There has been feverish excitement over artificial intelligence since OpenAI’s ChatGPT arrived on the scene in late 2022, but the EU’s concerns over the technology’s harms have grown in parallel.

Brussels especially fears the impact of Russian “manipulation” and “disinformation” on elections taking place in the bloc’s 27 member states on June 6-9.

In the new guidelines, the Commission said the largest platforms “should assess and mitigate specific risks linked to AI, for example by clearly labelling content generated by AI (such as deepfakes)”.

It recommended that big platforms promote official information on elections and “reduce the monetisation and virality of content that threatens the integrity of electoral processes” to diminish any risks.

“With today’s guidelines we are making full use of all the tools offered by the DSA to ensure platforms comply with their obligations and are not misused to manipulate our elections, while safeguarding freedom of expression,” said the EU’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton.

While the guidelines are not legally binding, platforms must explain what other “equally effective” measures they are taking to limit the risks if they do not adhere to them.

The EU can ask for more information and if regulators do not believe there is full compliance, they can hit the firms with probes that could lead to hefty fines.

‘Trusted’ information

Under the new guidelines, the Commission also said political advertising “should be clearly labelled as such” before a tougher law on the issue comes into force in 2025. It also urges platforms to have mechanisms “to reduce the impact of incidents that could have a significant effect on the election outcome or turnout”. The EU will conduct “stress-tests” with relevant platforms in late April, it said.

X has already been under investigation since December over content moderation.

It pressed Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and four other platforms to provide more information on how they are countering AI risks to polls on March 14.

In the past few weeks, several of the companies including Meta have outlined their plans.

TikTok has announced more of the measures it was taking including push notifications from April that will direct users to find more “trusted and authoritative” information about the June vote.

TikTok has around 142 million monthly active users in the EU — and is increasingly used as a source of political information among young people.