On the heels of announcing that EU users would soon be able to opt out of algorithmic personalization in the app, as part of its Digital Services Act (DSA) compliance, TikTok today outlined various other steps it's taking to meet the updated DSA regulations.

The EU DSA, which will come into force soon, aims to protect user rights much better, most notably in the processing of personal data, and allow businesses to operate on a level playing field in the digital space. As part of this, every platform now has to provide more insight into how it uses data, and enable the users in the EU to opt out of such, if they desire.

In addition to switching off personalization and reverting users to a "popular" content feed based on regional trends, TikTok has also launched a new EU Online Safety Hub, which will provide an overview of TikTok's DSA compliance elements and reporting on each.

the new EU Safety Hub will give access to all of TikTok's reporting and transparency measures, including insights into how its algorithms work, content moderation processes, data on ad targeting, and much more.

It's a useful overview of all of TikTok's various measures, however, most of the segments link back to existing Help Center articles, so there's not much new insight as such.

And this will also include a new illegal content reporting option in the app, which would allow people to report content that they believe violates EU rules.

Any content reported will be evaluated against our Community Guidelines and ad policies, and globally removed if it's ruled to violate our policies. If it doesn't, our new dedicated team of moderators and legal specialists will determine whether the content violates local law and access to that content will be restricted in that country."

TikTok is also expanding its ad library to include more information about campaigns in the app.
When you click on through on a campaign's details, it will now include more insight into ad targeting specifics, including all the demographic and interest parameters applied, as well as where the ad has been displayed around the world.

Last but not least, TikTok said it has also added further ad labels to increase promotional transparency.
Options for a label include: 'ad/sponsored' if paid for by an advertiser; 'paid partnership' if it's a commercial partnership between an individual and a brand; or 'promotional content' whereby organic content by an individual/business is utilised to support their own brand, product or service.

The DSA has already had a significant impact on the manner in which platforms report their data usage, and it'll be interesting to see if the added notes will change how people allow apps to track and utilize their information, if indeed it leads to any change on this front.

More information is better, no doubt, but options like switching off the algorithm are likely more attractive in theory, similar to switching off ad personalization. Like, you’re going to be shown ads anyway, so it’s probably better to have more personalized, customized outreach, but at the same time, it makes sense that users should have the option to control how their information is used.

And for brands, these new measures also might provide a group of new insights into competitors' approaches, ad targeting options, etc.

That is not really what's intended, but increased access to more data could then better inform your own strategies by indicating what the top brands do to reach people in an app.