Spain probe finds 20,000 suspected paedophile TikTok profiles
The gist
Spanish nonprofit Maldita.es found over 20,000 suspected paedophile profiles and 1,000-plus child abuse videos on TikTok.
Spain's youth ministry has asked prosecutors to act and may seek a ban.
How it unfolded
- Sep 11, 2026 – Oct 15, 2026Maldita.es monitored TikTok for 35 days, analyzing profiles, comments and livestreams and creating its own accounts to see how the algorithm responded.
- Nov 9, 2026After the results were announced, Spain's Ministry of Youth and Childhood asked the Prosecutor's Office to take action and left open the possibility of suspending the platform in Spain.
- Nov 10, 2026Reports on the Maldita.es investigation were published; the foundation said TikTok had removed just one-tenth of the content it flagged and blocked only a quarter of illegal posts in Spain.
Key terms
- prosecutors
- A legal official who represents the state in bringing criminal charges against an accused person in court.
- fact-checking
- The process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements, done before or after publication.
- algorithm
- An information filtering system that suggests items relevant to a user, often informally called a service's algorithm.
Source: Wikipedia