Facebook and Instagram face European Union scrutiny over possible digital rulebook violations

LONDON – The European Union said on Tuesday it is scrutinizing Facebook and Instagram over a series of suspected violations of the bloc’s digital rulebook, including not doing enough to protect users from foreign disinformation ahead of elections across the country. the EU.

The EU’s Executive Commission said it is opening formal proceedings into whether parent company Meta Platforms violated the Digital Services Law, a comprehensive set of regulations aimed at protecting internet users and cleaning up social media platforms.

Brussels has been cracking down on technology companies since the DSA came into force last year, opening investigations into social media sites TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, and e-commerce platform AliExpress. Last week, TikTok bowed to EU pressure and halted a rewards feature on its new app after the Commission began demanding answers on the issue.

“We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms,” Meta said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”

The Commission said it is investigating whether Meta is doing enough to curb the spread of “misleading advertisements, disinformation campaigns and coordinated inauthentic behavior” that could pose a risk to “electoral processes” and consumer protection.

Officials said it does not appear the company has an effective mechanism for content moderation, including for ads made with generative AI, including deepfakes — a weakness they say appears to have been exploited by malicious actors for foreign interference.

The EU also suspects that Facebook and Instagram may be reducing the visibility in political content recommendation feeds of accounts that spread a lot of political content – a practice known as shadowbanning – and not being transparent with users, which would be a violation of the law. the DSA.

A third concern is that Meta is phasing out the use of Crowdtangle, a tool used for real-time election monitoring, used by researchers, journalists and civil society. The Commission gives Meta five days to respond with information about any “corrective measures” it is taking to compensate for its loss.

EU officials are taking steps to safeguard elections as citizens in the bloc’s 27 countries prepare to vote for their lawmakers in June.

The Commission is also investigating whether Meta’s mechanism for users to flag illegal content is good enough under the DSA, because it suspects that this method is not easily accessible and easy to use.