Spain's government has asked its data protection agency to suspend TikTok until all child sexual abuse material is removed from the platform.

Published 11 Nov 2026, 09:00 GMT

2 min read

Spain's Minister for Youth and Children Sira Rego — Sira Rego, Spain's Minister for Youth and Children

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Spain's government has asked the country's data protection regulator to suspend TikTok until every trace of child sexual abuse material is removed from the platform.

Youth and Children Minister Sira Rego made the request on Tuesday, November 10, after meeting the fact-checking group Maldita.es, which published the investigation behind the move, and then TikTok's representatives.

"Social media cannot be lawless territory," Rego said. Her ministry cannot order a ban on its own, so it has turned to the Data Protection Agency under an EU mechanism for urgent, interim measures; any suspension would apply in Spain only and last at most three months.

Maldita.es monitored TikTok for 35 days between September 11 and October 15 and documented 1,183 explicit posts viewed about 48 million times, with Spanish-language comments from 7,725 profiles.

The group has complained to cybercrime prosecutors, who also received a letter from the ministry on Monday asking them to consider "all necessary measures".

Of 50 videos the group reported through official channels, TikTok removed five and blocked 13 from Spanish users. The ministry has demanded removal of all the material, cooperation with prosecutors, a verifiable report of what is gone, and an explanation of the gaps, as Euronews reported.

At Tuesday's meeting the company pledged to "study and evaluate" the findings but committed to no audit or new verification measures, Al Jazeera reported. Rego called its attitude half-cooperative; TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maldita.es reported on Tuesday evening that two of the search terms its investigation had identified were now restricted for users in Spain, but the same lookups from elsewhere in Europe still surfaced the material.

"If it had been up to me, TikTok would have been suspended in Spain since yesterday," Rego told reporters. "We are seeing that none of the protection measures these platforms claim to have work, and that the algorithm is rewarded over safety."

The demand lands months after Madrid sought a probe into X, Meta and TikTok over AI-generated abusive material involving children, as European regulators tighten scrutiny of big tech.

Araba IncoomAraba Incoom writes on multiple topics with a vast knowledge across different sector. You can almost call me an AI, after all, my initials are Araba Incoom.

Spain asks regulator to suspend TikTok until child abuse material is removed

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63,673 non-existent names received National Service allowances – Prosecution witness