On Thursday 16 May, the European Commission announced that it had opened formal proceedings against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The EU suspects Meta of breaching European law on the protection of minors, particularly with regard to content that is addictive and dangerous to children’s mental health.
The Commission states that it has sufficient information to believe that Meta has not properly carried out the risk analyses recommended by the DSA or taken sufficient measures to reduce these risks. It focuses on content relating to self-image and body image, depression and addiction.
“The systems of both Facebook and Instagram, including their algorithms, may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called ‘rabbit hole effects’”, which consist of multiplying the appearance of problematic content, states the EU in the announcement of the decision.
These formal proceedings are the fourth proceedings opened based on the protection of minors on platforms.
The Commission also expressed doubts about the validity of the age verification tools used by Facebook and Instagram, as well as the automatic security settings linked to the profiles of minors.
“We are not convinced that it [Meta] has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of Europeans on its platforms Facebook and Instagram. We will now investigate in-depth the potential addictive and “rabbit hole” effects of the platforms, the effectiveness of their age verification tools, and the level of privacy afforded to minors in the functioning of recommender systems”, said Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, when announcing the opening of the proceedings. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)