The European Commission announced on Thursday that Facebook and Instagram are under formal investigation over child protection concerns. The investigation follows a series of requests for information from parent company Meta since the EU's online governance regime, the Digital Services Act (DSA), came into effect last August.
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The development could be significant as the formal procedure unlocks additional investigative powers for EU law enforcement officials, such as the ability to conduct office inspections or take provisional measures. Any confirmed violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law can result in a maximum penalty of 6% of Meta's global annual turnover.
Meta's two social networks are designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) under the DSA. That means the company faces an additional set of rules - overseen directly by the EU - requiring it to assess and mitigate systemic risks on Facebook and Instagram, including those related to the mental health of minors.
In a briefing with reporters, senior committee officials said they suspected Meta had failed to properly assess and mitigate risks affecting children.
In particular, they highlighted concerns about addictive design on their social network and what they called the "rabbit hole effect," in which minors who watch one video may be pushed by the platform's algorithmic content recommendation engine to watch more similar content.
Commission officials cited as examples depressive content or content promoting unhealthy body images as types of content that could have a negative impact on minors' mental health.
They also worry that the age-guaranteed approach used by Meta may be too easy for children to circumvent.
"One of the underlying issues in all this dissatisfaction is how we determine who has accessed the service and how effective the age gate is - particularly in preventing underage users from accessing the service," a senior commission official said today, giving background to the media. "This is part of our current investigation to examine the effectiveness of the measures taken by Meta in this regard."
The EU suspects Meta of violating Articles 28, 34 and 35 of the Danish Child Protection Act. Currently, the European Commission will conduct an in-depth investigation into the child protection measures of these two platforms.
The European Union launched a similar investigation into the addictive design of video-sharing social network TikTok last month.
The Commission also launched two DSA investigations into Meta's social network. Last month, the committee said it would conduct separate investigations into Facebook and Instagram's election integrity practices.
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