The European Union (EU) has launched a formal investigation into Meta over concerns that its platforms, Instagram and Facebook, may be causing behavioral addictions and other harms in children.
The probe announced by the European Commission on Thursday will assess whether Meta has breached rules under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), noting that Facebook and Instagram’s UI and algorithms may cause “behavioral addictions in children” and create “rabbit-hole effects.”
🚨 Today we open formal #DSA investigation against #Meta.
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) May 16, 2024
We are not convinced that Meta has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations — to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young Europeans on its platforms Facebook and Instagram. pic.twitter.com/WxPwgE5Opc
The probe will additionally assess whether Meta’s content recommendation systems and default privacy settings provide enough privacy, safety, and security for minors.
