The European Union’s aggressive regulatory action seeks to safeguard children from the harms of social media
A European Union investigation has concluded that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram apps are overly addictive. The European Commission is now pushing the company to make changes or face hefty fines.
EU authorities say Meta violated the 2022 Digital Services Act by designing Facebook and Instagram with addictive features, including infinite scroll and autoplay videos. Regulators also allege the company overlooked evidence showing how much time minors spend on the apps overnight.
The bloc is a massive market, with roughly 450 million people. Its aggressive regulatory action seeks to safeguard children from the harms of social media. In February, it accused TikTok of having similar addictive design features.
Citing concerns over addictive design, the European Commission is exploring a ban on social media use by children, following Australia’s example.
The European Commission has proposed several changes to Meta’s platforms. These include disabling autoplay and infinite scrolling, adding screen time breaks, and making the recommendation algorithm less focused on maximizing engagement.
Meta disagreed with the preliminary findings and defended its current teen protection measures. The tech giant can now submit proposed fixes before the European Commission reaches a final decision and levies any penalties.
Meta faces potential fines of up to 6% of its annual global revenue if the preliminary findings are upheld.
Meta has been in hot water recently. On Friday, it suspended the new Muse Image generator on Instagram, which let users generate images from public profiles, after it sparked widespread backlash. Rolled out on Tuesday, the tool automatically included all public accounts, allowing users’ likenesses to be used in AI-generated images without consent and prompting privacy and copyright concerns.
The Meta Glasses are also drawing criticism after reports that some users have used them to secretly record women while harassing them in public, according to Engadget.