The European Commission announced Friday that Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta has breached the EU’s digital regulations due to addictive design elements on Instagram and Facebook that pose risks to user mental health.
CNBC reports that the EU has determined that Meta violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) through its failure to adequately address risks associated with design features affecting the physical well-being of users, particularly minors and vulnerable adults. The preliminary findings, released Friday by the European Commission, focus on several features that regulators believe encourage compulsive platform use.
The Commission identified specific design elements as addictive, including infinite scroll functionality that continuously presents fresh content, autoplay features, push notifications, and highly personalized recommendation algorithms. According to EU regulators, these features feed users’ compulsive behavior and place them into what the Commission described as autopilot mode, making it difficult for individuals to control their usage patterns.
Beyond the design features themselves, the Commission accused Meta of disregarding available data about young people’s nighttime usage of Instagram and Facebook. The regulatory body also stated that Meta has not sufficiently considered how different content formats, including reels and stories, could contribute to excessive platform use.
The European Commission asserts that Meta has not taken adequate steps to mitigate these risks and needs to implement substantial changes to its platform designs. The proposed remedies include disabling autoplay and infinite scroll features by default and implementing mandatory screen time breaks for users.
If the preliminary findings are confirmed following the investigation’s conclusion, Meta faces potential fines reaching up to six percent of its total annual revenue, representing a significant financial penalty for the technology company.
In a statement to Breitbart News, a Meta spokesperson wrote:
We disagree with these preliminary findings, which don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens. 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. These time limits cannot be changed or dismissed by u16s. We share the European Commission’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive online experiences and will continue to engage constructively with them.
This marks the second occasion this year that the European Commission has found Meta in violation of its regulations. As Breitbart News reported in April:
European regulators announced Wednesday that preliminary investigations concluded Meta violated the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) over claims the minimum age requirement of 13 for its major social platforms is not properly enforced. The finding represents a significant regulatory challenge for the technology giant as it faces increasing scrutiny worldwide regarding how it protects young users.
According to the Commission’s findings, children can easily bypass age restrictions by entering false birth dates during account creation, with no verification systems in place to confirm their actual age. The regulatory body also identified serious flaws in Meta’s processes for removing underage users once they are discovered on the platforms.
The reporting mechanism designed for flagging minor accounts presents particular concerns. The Commission described this tool as difficult to access, requiring users to navigate through up to seven clicks to reach the reporting form. More troubling, even when an underage account is successfully reported, the Commission found that appropriate follow-up actions and removal measures are frequently lacking.
Read more at CNBC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.