2024-04-30 15:10:37
The European Commission has opened proceedings once morest the Facebook and Instagram group Meta on suspicion of violations of EU law. Among other things, it will be examined whether the US company has not adhered to European rules when dealing with political advertising, the Commission announced on Tuesday in Brussels.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said her authority had created tools to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries. “If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act. This applies at all times, but especially in times of democratic elections,” said the former German defense minister.
“We suspect that Meta’s content moderation is inadequate,” said EU Digital Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday. “There is a lack of transparency.” The latter also applies to those who commission political online advertising. Therefore, it is now being examined whether the US company’s Facebook and Instagram services violate the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Meta denied the accusation. “We have an established process for identifying and minimizing risks on our platforms.” The US group now has five working days to inform the EU regarding possible steps to address the concerns. The DSA subjects very large Internet companies to stricter regulation. Among other things, the law obliges them to set up risk management and to take increased action once morest hatred and hate speech on the Internet. Violations can result in penalties of up to six percent of global annual turnover.
The alleged violations involve, among other things, Meta’s failure to adequately combat the spread of misleading advertising and disinformation campaigns in the EU. In addition, the Commission suspects that the options for users to complain regarding content on the platforms do not meet the requirements of European law. In addition, meta researchers are given insufficient access to data.
The Commission emphasizes that the initiation of the procedure merely examines a suspicion and that the authority’s preliminary assessment does not yet represent a final result. The commission will continue to collect evidence, for example through interviews. In addition, the EU Commission might theoretically accept concessions from Meta.
According to insiders, the authorities’ investigations revolved primarily around the “Doppelgänger” network. This group from Russia is known for imitating authentic media in a deceptively realistic manner. Meta had uncovered the activities of “Doppelgänger” in 2022 and, according to its own information, has since blocked tens of thousands of links that are connected to this network.
The EU also criticized Meta for the lack of an effective tool for citizen dialogue and real-time third-party election observation. It is also worrying that the analysis software CrowdTangle is to be switched off. With their help, scientists, journalists and companies were able to track which contributions on online platforms were particularly successful. In the EU alone, more than 250 million people use Meta’s various services every month.
In October, EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Facebook regarding too much manipulated content on the platform in connection with elections. Breton wrote that he wanted to be informed immediately regarding the details of the measures Facebook has taken to curb counterfeiting, including with a view to upcoming elections in the EU. The European Parliament will be re-elected in the summer.
Many in the EU believe that Russia is trying to influence the elections. Belgium recently made public that intelligence information showed that there were attempts to have as many Russia-friendly representatives elected to the European Parliament as possible. Last week, the Belgian EU Council Presidency triggered the international community’s crisis reaction mechanism (IPCR), which is intended to enable closer exchanges regarding ongoing measures once morest Russian influence.
Proceedings are already underway once morest the online platform TikTok and the short message service X (formerly Twitter). TikTok is examining whether the Chinese company is endangering the mental health of minors with its app version TikTok Lite. After reports of illegal and misleading contributions to the Islamist Hamas attack on Israel, X was sent a list of questions, which the company apparently did not answer to the satisfaction of the EU Commission. Proceedings once morest X were initiated in mid-December.
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