The European Commission has opened an investigation that will put Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, under the microscope. Possibly Meta platforms do not comply with regulations around detecting and removing disinformation.
Meta is suspected of several offenses under the Digital Services Act, the European Commission reports (1). In particular, the social media company is charged with distributing misleading advertisements and suppressing political content.
The Digital Services Act is designed to regulate online platforms and networks. It is suspected that Meta is not fully compliant with the DSA legislation. Hence, the European Commission is going to investigate.
The possible violations are as follows:
Misleading ads and disinformation: the Commission suspects Meta of intentionally spreading disinformation campaigns using ads.
Visibility of political content: on Instagram and Facebook, political content is regularly suppressed or influenced by Meta's algorithms. This means users have limited access to free information.
Lack of independent monitoring tools: the EU suspects Meta is not taking sufficient action to account for the role social media plays in public debate, particularly in terms of transparency and monitoring during elections.
Detecting and reporting illegal content: Finally, the Commission points out that Meta's reporting system for illegal content does not meet the requirements of the DSA.
The BBC writes that the reason for the investigation follows suspicion that a Russian propaganda campaign has been given free rein on Meta's platforms. This is based on research by the nonprofit group AI Forensics.
Ursula van der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said major digital platforms must meet their European obligations on inhibiting disinformation and manipulation and that the investigation is a step for social networks to show this.
(1) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_2373
