\n<\/p>\n
Instagram and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to complain or flag illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said.<\/p>\n
In a preliminary finding on Friday, the EU\u2019s executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn (\u00a31.4tn) California company that runs Instagram and Facebook, had introduced unnecessary steps in processes for users to submit reports.<\/p>\n
It said both platforms appeared to use deceptive design \u2013 known as \u201cdark patterns\u201d \u2013 in the reporting mechanism in a way that could be \u201cconfusing and dissuading\u201d to users.<\/p>\n
The commission found this amounted to a breach of the company\u2019s obligations under the EU-wide Digital Services Act (DSA), and meant that \u201cMeta\u2019s mechanisms to flag and remove illegal content may be ineffective\u201d. Meta denies it has breached the act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to Meta, neither Facebook nor Instagram appear to provide a user-friendly and easily accessible \u2018notice and action\u2019 mechanism for users to flag illegal content such as child sexual abuse material and terrorist content,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n
A senior EU official said the case was not only about illegal content, but also about freedom of speech and \u201cmoderation that has gone too far\u201d. In the past, Facebook has been accused of \u201cshadow banning\u201d users on issues such as Palestine, meaning their content is demoted by the algorithm.<\/p>\n
The current mechanisms for complaints were \u201ctoo difficult for users to go through to the end\u201d, resulting not just in ineffectiveness but a disincentive for users to get in touch, the official said.<\/p>\n
Campaigners have continued to allege safety shortcomings in some of Meta\u2019s products. Last month, a Meta whistleblower, Arturo B\u00e9jar, published research he said showed that the majority of new safety tools rolled out on Instagram were ineffective, leaving children under 13 not safe on the platform.<\/p>\n
Meta rejected the report\u2019s findings and said parents had robust tools at their fingertips. The company introduced mandatory teen accounts on Instagram in September 2024, and it said this month it would adopt a version of the PG-13 cinema rating system to give parents stronger controls over their teenagers\u2019s use of the social media platform.<\/p>\n
The commission also said Meta made things difficult for users whose content had been blocked or their accounts suspended. It found the decision appeal mechanism did not appear to allow users to provide explanations or evidence to substantiate their appeals, limiting its effectiveness.<\/p>\n
The commission said simplification of the feedback system would also help the platforms eliminate fake news such as the deepfake video in Ireland claiming the leading presidential election candidate, Catherine Connolly, was pulling out of Friday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n
The investigation, which is ongoing, was carried out in cooperation with Coimisi\u00fan na Me\u00e1n, the Irish digital services coordinator responsible for regulating the platforms, whose EU headquarters are in Dublin.<\/p>\n
The commission also made a preliminary finding that TikTok and Meta were in breach of their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data that could be used to check on how far minors are exposed to illegal or harmful content. It said researchers were often left with partial or unreliable data.<\/p>\n
\u201cAllowing researchers access to platforms\u2019 data is an essential transparency obligation under the DSA, as it provides public scrutiny into the potential impact of platforms on our physical and mental health,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n
The preliminary findings allow the platforms time to comply with the commission\u2019s demands. If they do not, they face a fine of up to 6% of total worldwide annual turnover, with periodic penalty payments to compel compliance.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Henna Virkkunen, the commission\u2019s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said: \u201cOur democracies depend on trust. That means platforms must empower users, respect their rights and open their systems to scrutiny.<\/p>\n \u201cThe DSA makes this a duty, not a choice. With today\u2019s actions, we have now issued preliminary findings on researchers\u2019 access to data to four platforms. We are making sure platforms are accountable for their services, as ensured by EU law, towards users and society.\u201d<\/p>\n A Meta spokesperson said: \u201cWe disagree with any suggestion that we have breached the DSA, and we continue to negotiate with the European Commission on these matters. In the European Union, we have introduced changes to our content reporting options, appeals process, and data access tools since the DSA came into force and are confident that these solutions match what is required under the law in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n TikTok said it was not possible to fully share data about its platform with researchers without breaking separate GDPR data protection rules.<\/p>\n \u201cTikTok is committed to transparency and values the contribution of researchers to our platform and the wider industry,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cWe have made substantial investments in data sharing and almost 1,000 research teams have been given access to data through our research tools to date.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are reviewing the European Commission\u2019s findings, but requirements to ease data safeguards place the DSA and GDPR in direct tension.\u201d<\/p>\n The company urged regulators to \u201cprovide clarity on how these obligations should be reconciled\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Instagram and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to complain or flag illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said. In a preliminary finding on Friday, the EU\u2019s executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn (\u00a31.4tn) California company that runs Instagram and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[6650,3593,1914,17803,408,17802,175,1086,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-30274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-breach","9":"tag-complaints","10":"tag-content","11":"tag-flagging","12":"tag-illegal","13":"tag-ineffective","14":"tag-law","15":"tag-meta","16":"tag-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}