Brussels acts against Facebook, Instagram over political misinformation
Vote euro - Photo © Andre - Fotolia
(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission opened formal proceedings Tuesday to assess whether Meta, the provider of Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission says suspected infringements cover Meta's policies and practices relating to deceptive advertising and political content on its services. They also concern non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the elections to the European Parliament.
The EU executive also suspects that the mechanism for flagging illegal content on the services ('Notice-and-Action') as well as the user redress and internal complaint-mechanisms are not compliant with the requirements of the Digital Services Act and that there are shortcomings in Meta's provision of access to publicly available data to researchers.
The opening of proceedings is based on the Commission's preliminary analysis of a risk assessment report sent by Meta in September 2023, Meta's replies to Commission requests for Information (on illegal content and disinformation, data access, subscription for no-ads policy and generative AI), publicly available reports and the Commission's own analysis.
The current proceedings will focus on the following areas:
- Deceptive advertisements and disinformation: the Commission suspects that Meta does not comply with DSA obligations related to addressing the dissemination of deceptive advertisements, disinformation campaigns and coordinated inauthentic behaviour in the EU. The proliferation of such content may present a risk to civic discourse, electoral processes and fundamental rights, as well as consumer protection.
- Visibility of political content: the Commission suspects that Meta's policy linked to the 'political content approach', that demotes political content in the recommender systems of Instagram and Facebook, including their feeds, is not compliant with DSA obligations. The investigation will focus on the compatibility of this policy with the transparency and user redress obligations, as well as the requirements to assess and mitigate risks to civic discourse and electoral processes.
- Non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool ahead of the upcoming elections to the European Parliament and other elections in various Member States: the Commission suspects Meta has failed to diligently assess and adequately mitigate risks related to Facebook's and Instagram's effects on civic discourse and electoral processes and other systemic risks.
- The mechanism to flag illegal content: the suspicion is that Meta's notice and action mechanism, that allows users to notify the presence of illegal content on its services, is not compliant with DSA obligations.
After the formal opening of proceedings, the Commission will continue to gather evidence, for example by sending additional requests for information, conducting interviews or inspections.
EU Official Journal text on the DSA
Very large online platforms and search engines under the DSA
DSA general entry into application