KUALA LUMPUR – The European Commission has initiated formal proceedings to investigate whether Facebook and Instagram provider Meta has breached the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
The suspected infringements, the commission said in a statement today, covered the tech giant’s policies and practices relating to deceptive advertising and political content on its services.
The social media platform provider is also under investigation for the non-availability of an effective third party real-time civic discourse and election monitoring tool ahead of the European Parliament election scheduled to be held on June 6 to 9.
The lack of such measures comes amid Meta’s deprecation of its real-time public insights tool CrowdTangle without an adequate replacement, the commission added.
“The commission 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 DSA and that there are shortcomings in Meta’s provision of access to publicly available data to researchers.”
The proceedings were based on a preliminary risk analysis of Meta’s risk assessment report presented in September last year, Meta’s replies to the commission’s formal requests for information, the commission’s own analysis, and publicly available reports
Stressing that big digital platforms have a duty to live up to their obligations and put enough resources into protecting citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries, commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that today’s decision highlights the commission’s seriousness in adhering to compliance.
“If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act. This is true at all times, but especially in times of democratic elections,” stated the commission president.
Last month, it was reported that EU regulators have launched investigations into major US tech giants, including Apple, Google, and Meta, under the newly enacted Digital Markets Act (DMA), which operates alongside the DSA.
The latter acts as a law seeking to regulate illegal content and combat the spread of hate speech online.
If found guilty of non-compliance, the commission has the authority to levy heavy fines on implicated companies. This could hit up to 10% of the corporations’ global turnover, while repeat offenders could be hit with double the percentage.
Despite investigations, tech lobby groups like the Computer and Communications Industry Association have criticised the EU’s approach, raising concerns about the speed of investigations and advocating for more time to gather data before taking such actions. – April 30, 2024