The European Commission opened an investigation on Thursday targeting the social networks Facebook and Instagram (Meta group) suspected of developing addictive behavior in children and of not sufficiently protecting them against “inappropriate content”.
“We are not convinced that Meta has done enough to mitigate the risks to the physical and mental health of young Europeans on its platforms” in line with the requirements of the European Digital Services Regulation (DSA), said European Commissioner Thierry Breton, cited in a press release.
This is the sixth formal investigation launched by the Commission, and the second targeting Meta, as part of this new legislation which came into force last year to combat illegal content online.
The American group immediately affirmed its goodwill on this issue.
“We want young people to have safe, age-appropriate online experiences and we have spent a decade developing more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them. This is a challenge facing the whole sector and we look forward to sharing details of our work with the European Commission,” a spokesperson said.
Meta had already been warned in November about the protection of minors but his responses to formal requests from Brussels were clearly not considered reassuring.
The opening of an investigation “does not prejudge its outcome”, underlines the Commission. The procedure will allow the European executive to continue to accumulate evidence and put pressure on Meta for improvements.
Brussels is particularly concerned about “the risks caused by the design of Facebook and Instagram interfaces, which can exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors and cause addictive behavior”.
“Inappropriate content”
She considers efforts to “prevent minors’ access to inappropriate content, including the age verification tools used by Meta,” to be insufficient.
The regulation on digital services has applied since the end of August to the most powerful online platforms such as X, TikTok as well as the main services of Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon.
In total, 23 very large Internet players, including three pornographic sites (Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos), were placed under the direct surveillance of the European Commission, which recruited more than a hundred experts in Brussels to assume its new role as digital policeman.
Violators face fines of up to 6% of their annual global turnover, or even a ban on operating in Europe in the event of serious and repeated violations.
The Commission had already opened an investigation at the end of April against Facebook and Instagram, accused of not fighting sufficiently against disinformation.
She had previously opened two investigations targeting TikTok, one of which pushed this subsidiary of Chinese ByteDance to suspend a controversial function which rewarded users for time spent in front of screens and was suspected of causing addiction among adolescents.
A procedure was also launched at the beginning of March against the Chinese online commerce giant AliExpress, a subsidiary of Alibaba, suspected of not sufficiently combating the sale of dangerous products such as fake medicines.
The first formal investigation already focused on risks linked to disinformation. It was initiated on December 18 against the social network X (formerly Twitter) for alleged failures in content moderation and transparency.