The European Commission announced, on Friday 10 November, that it had sent requests for information to the Meta and Snapchat groups, asking them to provide more information on measures taken to comply with the DSA rules on the protection of minors online. A request for information for the same reasons had been sent the previous day, Thursday 9 November, to TikTok and YouTube (see EUROPE 13289/6).
The two digital giants will have to respond to the European Commission by the 1st of December. If the evidence provided fails to convince the Commission, it may launch a formal procedure.
This type of procedure, provided for under the DSA, can lead, in the most serious cases, to fines of up to 6% of the targeted company's worldwide turnover.
Requests for information have multiplied in recent weeks. In addition to the requests for information sent to Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, the Commission had also asked X (formerly Twitter) to explain actions taken to curb the dissemination of terrorist and violent content, hate speech and disinformation (see EUROPE 13271/13).
On 19 October, the Commission also requested theMeta group to provide accounts for the same reasons as X (see EUROPE 13275/4). The Commission had also sent a request to Alphabet (see EUROPE 13271/14) to take stock of measures to control and moderate illegal content and disinformation online.
The company AliExpress, for its part, was called upon to take stock of the aspect inherent in the protection of online consumers (see EUROPE 13286/8).
“This is going to become a normal tool, as the text is based on risk assessment”, commented a European source on requests for information under the DSA. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)