The EU’s executive body announced a new set of accusations against Meta Platforms as part of its inquiry under the Digital Services Act, the EU’s comprehensive digital regulations. These regulations require tech companies to safeguard internet users, with substantial fines as a consequence for non-compliance.
The European Commission stated that Meta has not adequately evaluated the risks its design elements pose to users’ physical and mental health, particularly for minors. While the company does provide tools and controls for managing usage of Facebook and Instagram, these options are often ignored, difficult to access, or easy to bypass.
The commission indicated that Meta “needs to implement design changes” to both Instagram and Facebook, suggesting that addictive features like autoplay and infinite scroll should not be enabled by default.
Meta now has an opportunity to respond and present its defense before the commission reaches a final verdict, which could impose a fine of up to 6 percent of the company’s global annual revenue.
On Friday, Meta expressed that the preliminary findings overlook the measures already taken to safeguard teenagers.
“Since the onset of this investigation, we have introduced Teen Accounts that automatically secure teens’ safety and give parents the ability to restrict access to Instagram during the night and limit daily screen time to just 15 minutes,” Meta affirmed in a prepared statement. “We share the European Commission’s dedication to ensuring safe and positive online experiences for teens and will continue to engage in constructive dialogue with them.” Europe is determined to uphold its laws that hold platforms accountable for features promoting excessive usage, commented Henna Virkkunen, an executive vice-president at the commission supervising technology.
“The protection of the physical and mental health of Europeans should be a paramount consideration for social media platforms,” Virkkunen stated in a written message.
The commission indicated that Facebook and Instagram’s design components, such as personalized recommendations and push notifications, bombards users with an endless flow of content, placing their minds on “autopilot” and encouraging compulsive usage.
At the same time, the screen time controls that parents can apply to their teens’ devices are often “easily dismissed” and do not lead to a significant reduction in usage, according to the commission. Furthermore, the effectiveness of these controls is hindered by the level of technical knowledge, time, and effort required from parents to understand and utilize them.
The proposed design modifications from the commission also include discovering better methods to promote breaks from screen time and adjusting the content recommendation system to be less “engagement-focused.” These preliminary findings come as the latest accusations since Brussels initiated its investigation in 2024, amid concerns that the social media giant has not sufficiently protected children online.
Earlier in the year, the EU reported that its inquiry revealed that Meta had failed to prevent children under 13—the minimum age for Facebook and Instagram—from creating accounts, and was not taking adequate measures to locate and remove underage users once they registered.
