The EU has today charged Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook with breaching its tech rules, with regulators targeting features they say are designed to keep users hooked and demanding changes to autoplay and infinite scroll or risk fines.
The European Commission’s preliminary findings follow a two-year investigation under the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act, which requires large online platforms to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content.
Social media companies face growing scrutiny around the world over concerns that their platforms are contributing to a mental health crisis among children, prompting some governments to impose or consider bans for underage users.
The Commission, the EU’s tech regulator, said Meta had failed to adequately assess the addictive risks posed by highly personalised recommendations, autoplay and infinite scroll, which continuously feed users new content and encourage prolonged engagement.
It said reels and stories on Facebook and Instagram could contribute to excessive or compulsive use.
The regulator criticised Meta’s measures to mitigate these risks, saying time management tools can be easily dismissed, while parental controls require significant time, effort and technical knowledge to use effectively.
Meta should disable features such as autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introduce effective screen-time breaks and make its recommendation system less focused on driving engagement, the Commission said.
Meta disagrees with the charges
“We disagree with these preliminary findings, which don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens,” Meta spokesperson Ben Walters said.
“Since this investigation began, we rolled out Teen Accounts that automatically protect teens and put parents in control – allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes,” he added.
Meta added it would continue to engage constructively with EU regulators.
“Our starting point is that, based on our findings, this design is too addictive and changes need to be made,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told Reuters.
“The next step is either that Meta changes its design or a non compliance decision will follow.”
Meta, which risks a fine of up to 6% of its global annual turnover, can respond to the charges before the Commission issues a final decision in the coming months.
The company last month failed in its bid to dismiss claims by 29 US state attorneys general’sthat Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children.
The EU charges against Meta mirror those brought against TikTok in February, when regulators demanded similar changes to its app.
The Commission is separately investigating so-called rabbit hole effects caused by Facebook and Instagram recommendation systems, where users can be drawn into prolonged viewing by algorithmic recommendations that push them towards similar content.
In another case announced in April, it told Meta to do more to prevent children under 13 from accessing its social networks or risk fines.
The Commission is due to receive findings from experts on Monday that could help pave the way for a Europe-wide social media ban for teenagers that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce in her September state of the union address.
IMO welcomes findings, calls for ‘more robust’ age verification
The Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said the dangers to young people from social media’s addictive features has been known for many years.
Professor Matthew Sadlier, Vice President and Chair of the Consultants’ Committee of the IMO, welcomed the findings against Instagram and Facebook by the European Commission.
“The dangers of these platforms and the fact that they are inducing compulsive use by young people has been known for many years,” he said.
“On average, those between 18 and 24 years old are using a screen for about six hours a day, and social media somewhere in the region of four and a half to five hours a day. That is a very unhealthy and dangerous activity.
“We know the content that children are seeing. We know that by 11 years of age, 25% of children will have seen hardcore pornography by accident. Not that they’ve sought it out, but it has sought them out.”
Prof Sadlier said the ruling had identified particular features, such as infinite scrolling, the recommender algorithm and autoplay.
“And we know that there’s a couple of other platform issues, such as allowing children to experience ‘likes’ from other people to pictures they put up, which we know is creating a beauty culture among young girls that’s leading to distress and eating disorders, and those problems,” he said.
On claims by Meta that they have addressed many of the issues, Prof Sadlier said: “What the EU commission is saying, what the Australian commissioner is saying, what everybody’s saying is that their mechanisms are not robust enough.
“Meta, by its own terms of service, says you should not be on these platforms if you’re under 13. Now, there are children who are using these products under 13, and their only security is ticking a box to say, ‘Are you under 13?’.
“What we need is a more robust age verification system.”
Prof Sadlier said he thought that social media use was a very unhealthy activity for young people, and that there were internet alternatives that were also used during the Covid period.
“A lot of teens met up through Zoom accounts, which isn’t a social media platform. A lot of teens met up through message boards, which isn’t a social media platform. There are ways of doing this that does not involve social media,” he said.
“It does not involve exposing people to stranger contact, recommender algorithms, and the other dangers that come along with these platforms.”
He also had concerns about the creation of ‘in and out’ groups.
“We see that in these groups where, they develop a hatred the other, a hatred of the outside group, and that has led to real-world violence.”
He acknowledged that divisions existed before social media but that “the internet has done it at an industrial scale”.
“The grooming and online child exploitation that happens through social media, happens also at an industrial scale that we haven’t seen before, and that is the main danger.”
