In preliminary findings published on Friday 24 October, the European Commission announced that it suspected TikTok and Meta of breaching a number of obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly with regard to transparency and accessibility, after almost a year and a half of investigation (see EUROPE 13553/16).
The EU believes that the platforms have not aligned with the rules on strengthening users’ rights and access to data, particularly for researchers. The Commission deplores “tedious procedures and tools”, with the result that both TikTok and Meta have “partial or unreliable access” to information.
With regard to Meta and its networks (Instagram and Facebook), the Commission is targeting the procedures for reporting illegal content, which it considers to be unsuitable: too complex, difficult to grasp and handle, and discouraging for users.
“We can base our preliminary conclusions on hundreds of complaints. Users are faced with an interminable process, requiring 20 different clicks before even arriving at the notification page”, says a senior Commission official.
In her view, the misleading design of the procedure is intended to discourage people from reporting: “a person might try it once. But if they find that they never get an answer or never get to the end, they probably won’t do it again”.
At the same time, Meta is accused of not allowing users to effectively challenge its content moderation or account suspension decisions, with an endless and unclear process, with no possibility of justifying its request with explanations or evidence (see EUROPE 13553/5).
A roundabout way of avoiding its moderation obligations. “Normally, the platform is not responsible for the content published on it, but when a user reports it, this exemption from responsibility is lifted: the platform must then deal with the illegal content and take concrete action. All this is part of an important system, which cannot function if the reporting process is not adequate”, explains a senior civil servant.
In a reaction published by AFP, TikTok said it was “examining” the European Commission’s conclusions, but felt that the requirements for researchers to have access to data “put the DSA and GDPR in direct conflict”.
“Within the European Union, we have made changes to our content reporting options, appeals process and data access tools and are confident that these solutions are compliant with EU legal requirements”, Meta spokesperson Ben Walters said in a statement.
“When we are accused of censorship, we prove that the DSA does exactly the opposite. It protects freedom of expression by allowing EU citizens to fight against unilateral content moderation decisions taken by the technology giants”, says Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier (see EUROPE 13591/6).
Of the 918 million content moderation decisions taken by Meta since April 2024, 68 million have been contested using the DSA and 21 million have been successful.
The platforms now have the right to respond to the Commission’s allegations and to defend themselves. If the Commission is not convinced, they face fines of up to 6% of their annual worldwide turnover. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)