The European Commission has opened infringement proceedings against Meta because considers that Facebook and Instagram promote addiction among minors and that the company has not taken effective measures to remedy it. “We are not convinced that it has done enough to comply with the obligations of the digital services law to reduce the risks of negative effects on the physical and mental health of young Europeans on its Facebook and Instagram platforms,” ​​explained the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton.

Brussels believes that the algorithms used by Facebook and Instagram “they exploit the weakness and inexperience of minors”, by showing them content based on their interests, thus promoting their addiction to social networks, as explained in a statement. He also considers that Facebook and Instagram’s age verification tools are neither reasonable, proportionate nor effective in preventing minors from accessing inappropriate content. And that the privacy and security measures that Facebook and Instagram have by default do not sufficiently protect minors.

After studying the risk analysis that Meta sent it last year, the Community Executive suspects that The company would be violating the digital services law, so he decided to open the investigation. The opening of this investigation, for which there is no time limit, allows the Commission to adopt precautionary measures against Facebook and Instagram, as it already did with TikTok, forcing it to suspend the points program of the Lite version that it opened in Spain and France.

Since the digital services law came into force, which obliges platforms to protect minors, remove illegal content and greater transparency in the design of algorithms, Brussels has opened four infringement proceedings against Meta, two against TikTok and one against AliExpress.