Teen Held Over Blocus Riots Asks Probe of TikTok Algorithms

A 17-year-old held in a juvenile detention center over the Blocus disturbances in Barcelona has asked prosecutors to investigate how TikTok’s recommendation systems spread the call to protest. His lawyer, Marti Cànaves, says the teenager only saw the call because the app pushed it into his feed, according to elDiario.es, which reviewed the legal filing.

The Mossos d’Esquadra (Catalonia’s police force) identify the teenager, referred to as H., as an alleged promoter of the riots and looting of Oct. 24, who ran messaging groups used to call people out. The defense rejects that account and wants the platform’s role examined before any such label is applied.

What the police and the defense say

H. is one of five minors interned in Catalonia in connection with Blocus. He was not arrested on the day of the unrest, unlike the 70 minors who were detained then, most of whom remain free under supervision. The Mossos arrested him almost a week later. According to elDiario.es, his alleged role is that of a digital promoter, the same one attributed to four adults held in pretrial detention in València and Barcelona.

The judge ordered his internment even though the court’s technical team for minors had recommended supervised freedom combined with work with his family. His lawyer denies that H. took part in the looting and notes that police found no allegedly stolen items when they searched the family home. Cànaves calls the police claim that his client held a relevant position in a criminal group entirely unfounded.

H. had enrolled in a driving school, according to elDiario.es, but cannot attend classes while interned.

The request to the juvenile prosecutor

In the filing addressed to the Fiscalía de Menores (the juvenile prosecutor’s office), the defense argues that H. did not look for Blocus. The Barcelona call appeared in the “for you” section of TikTok while he was browsing, so the algorithm suggested it to him, the lawyer says.

The defense asks investigators to find out who first created and spread the posts, how they reached viewers and who actually organized and directed the protest. It wants the inquiry to cover how TikTok and Instagram recommendation systems worked in the days before Oct. 24, with particular attention to posts carrying QR codes tied to the calls.

Police work has already indicated that TikTok and Instagram were channels for spreading Blocus. Young people could use QR codes shown on those networks to enter closed WhatsApp or Telegram groups where the gatherings were detailed. Elsewhere in its reporting, elDiario.es says many participants learned of the protest from a link or QR code on social media, mostly TikTok, or from a friend, and that no student assembly or other traditional body decided it.

The lawyer’s reasoning is that if the Mossos treat TikTok links as evidence of membership in an alleged criminal organization, the defense is entitled to ask who produced those links and how they traveled. He also argues that a generic explanation from TikTok about its recommendation rules or safety policies would not show how the posts reached his client’s phone.

What the defense wants TikTok to disclose

• The people and organizational units that set up, supervised and changed the recommendation systems used in Spain in the weeks before the call.
• Whether the platform had tools able to recognize QR codes embedded in images or videos, flag potentially dangerous content, detect coordinated spreading and raise alerts when risk signs appeared.
• Whether the posts H. viewed triggered automated alerts, user reports or human review, and what was decided in response.
• Whether the posts were recommended to people who did not follow the accounts that published them, how far they spread and whether specific promotion mechanisms were used.

Why it matters

The filing moves part of the dispute from the street to the platforms. If prosecutors accept the request, the case would test how far a juvenile court can go in obtaining internal information from a large technology company. elDiario.es notes that tech firms are usually reluctant to cooperate with judicial investigations in Spain, and that any replies tend to be vague or negative.

The outcome also bears on how H. is treated. The defense says a full investigation would show he is a victim of disinformation and manipulation campaigns and not a minor who engaged in conduct with criminal relevance. The Mossos hold the opposite view.

Source: elDiario.es