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Brussels has warned Meta that Instagram and Facebook’s endlessly scrolling feeds may breach the EU’s new content rules, as regulators intensify scrutiny of social media’s impact on children.
In preliminary findings issued on Friday, the European Commission said it believed the group had failed to adequately assess and mitigate the risks posed by addictive design features that could have an impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of users, particularly children.
The warning comes amid a growing global backlash against Big Tech and the social effects of big online platforms.
In March, Meta was held liable in a landmark US legal case that found its platforms such as Instagram are designed to be addictive to children. Meanwhile, a growing number of countries have banned social media access for under-16s or are moving closer to doing so.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is set to present the results from an expert panel on child safety online on Monday, as more European countries push Brussels for some form of social media ban for minors.
Brussels wants Meta to implement design changes to Instagram and Facebook, including disabling autoplay and infinite scroll features and implementing effective screen-time breaks.
It said Meta’s current time management tools, including the ones for teenagers, “can be easily dismissed and do not lead to a meaningful reduction and control of the usage of the service”.
Henna Virkkunen, the EU’s tech chief, said: “Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for social media platforms.”
Meta on Friday said it disagreed with the Commission’s findings, saying they “don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens.”
The Commission issued a similar warning against TikTok in February over its addictive design features. That investigation is still ongoing.
It also warned Meta in April for failing to prevent children under 13 from using Instagram and Facebook.
The findings are one of the latest efforts under the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to identify and curb systemic risks linked to their products.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has aggressively pushed back against the enforcement of the DSA, arguing that the bloc is going too far in policing online content.
If the provisional conclusions are confirmed, Meta could be fined up to 6 per cent of its global turnover.
Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy in San Francisco
