Alibaba’s AliExpress Under Investigation For Illegal Content, Pornography

(CTN News) – Alibaba’s international e-commerce website AliExpress has been formally investigated by the European Commission over concerns about the dissemination of illegal material.

In accordance with the Digital Services Act, which became effective this month, the commission, the executive arm of the European Union, opened a probe into AliExpress as part of its landmark investigation.

According to the law, which applies to a wide range of activities, tech giants will be kept in check in a wide array of areas, such as anti-competitive behavior, misinformation on their platforms, etc.

A number of factors are being examined as part of the investigation, such as whether AliExpress may have breached the DSA with regards to “the management and mitigation of risks, the moderation of content and the handling of internal complaints, the transparency of advertising and recommender systems, the traceability of traders, and the access to data by researchers,” according to the commission.

There will be an investigation into whether the terms of service of AliExpress are actually enforced, which prohibit certain products that have a risk to consumers’ health such as fake medicines, that pose a threat to their health.

This probe will also focus on whether there have been violations of the DSA that allowed minors to gain access to pornographic materials, which the commission has said is still accessible to consumers on the platform as of now.

In addition to these areas of investigation, the probe will go into whether AliExpress is compliant with a rule that allows the e-commerce site to provide a searchable repository of ads that are placed on its platform as well as how the company recommends products to users.

According to a spokesperson from AliExpress, the company has “been working with, and will continue to work with, the relevant authorities to ensure that we are in compliance with applicable standards and that we will be able to meet the requirements of the DSA, and we will continue to do so.”

In addition, the spokesperson said that AliExpress is committed to ensuring that all consumers have a safe and compliant marketplace experience.

In addition to the previous DSA investigations opened into TikTok and social media platform X, this is the third formal inquiry under the DSA.

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