TikTok has 189 million EU users and fewer human moderators

TikTok keeps growing in Europe. Every six months the app has to publish numbers under the EU Digital Services Act, a European law that sets rules for big online platforms. The newest report covers the first half of 2026. It says TikTok has 189 million users a month in the European Union. That is about 42 percent of everyone living in the EU.

The number was 178 million in the second half of 2025. A year before that it was 169.5 million. So the app added about 20 million European users in twelve months.

The same report shows the other side. TikTok says it had 3,738 people checking content for the EU during that period. That is 64 more than in the six months before. It is also about 2,600 fewer than the 6,354 people it reported in October 2024. In six months TikTok removed about 104 million uploads that broke its rules. Computers made 94.1 percent of those decisions on their own, with no person looking at them. The earlier report, published in April, gave 112 million removals and 93.8 percent.

Europe is TikTok’s third-biggest region by users. Asia-Pacific has 460 million and South America has 228 million. The United States has 200 million, a little more than Europe.

Computers handle more removals as TikTok’s EU audience grows

TikTok’s audience in the EU is still growing. No other short-video app is growing that fast in Europe. Checks by Brussels have not slowed people down. But the share of removals handled by computers matters for brands that buy ads. Brands usually want to know their ad will not sit next to something harmful.

The European Commission has already opened a formal case against TikTok. In February 2026 it said, as a first finding, that the app’s design breaks Digital Services Act rules on features that keep people hooked. TikTok has also made a binding promise to build an ad library that people can search by December 2026. Social Media Transparency tracks that promise. Using more software while the number of human checkers stays flat gives regulators an easy question to ask.

TikTok reaches 16.4 million people in Poland, or 55 percent

Poland is one of the markets behind the trend. Wirtualne Media reported Mediapanel figures for March 2026. TikTok had 16.4 million users in Poland, which is 55 percent of the country. Instagram had 17.1 million, so TikTok is close behind. Time spent is the bigger surprise. The average Polish TikTok user spent about 22.5 hours on the app that month. That is more than Facebook’s 18.4 hours, and four times Instagram’s figure.

So attention matters as much as reach. The next EU debate about how apps choose what to show people is likely to focus on that.