Spain's government demanded Tuesday that TikTok suspend operations in the country until it removes child sexual abuse material from the platform, after an independent investigation found more than 1,000 explicit videos with a combined 48 million views.
Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego said she met with TikTok representatives and requested the company voluntarily suspend its services. "Social media cannot be lawless territory," Rego said in a statement.
Rego's ministry appealed to prosecutors and Spain's Data Protection Agency to take action against the platform. The government cannot unilaterally ban TikTok but can request regulatory intervention.
Spanish fact-checking nonprofit Maldita.es published the investigation Monday documenting 1,183 explicit posts involving child sexual abuse on the platform. The request follows months after Spain's government initiated 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 illegal content.