Global social networking platforms are becoming more strictly regulated! EU asks Meta (META.US) to fix Instagram and Facebook addiction features

The Zhitong Finance App learned that the European Union accused Instagram and Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms (META.US), of violating their technology regulations on Friday. Regulators are pointing the finger at these platforms' features designed to make users addicted, and require the platforms to modify the autoplay and infinite scrolling features; otherwise, they will face fines.

The European Commission arrived at this preliminary finding after two years of investigation in accordance with the landmark Act “Digital Services Law”. The bill requires large online platforms to step up efforts to crack down on illegal and harmful content.

Social media companies are facing increasing scrutiny around the world, and there are concerns that platforms are exacerbating children's mental health crisis, prompting some governments to implement or consider social media bans on underage users.

The European Commission, which is the EU's technology regulator, said that Meta failed to fully assess the risk of addiction caused by highly personalized recommendations, autoplay, and infinite scrolling. These features will continuously push new content to users and induce users to stay on the platform for a long time.

The agency said that the short video (Reels) and limited-time news (Stories) features on Facebook and Instagram can easily cause users to use the platform excessively and compulsively.

Regulators criticized Meta's measures to mitigate these risks, saying that time management tools can easily be overlooked, and that parental control functions require significant investment of time, effort, and certain technical knowledge to be used effectively.

The European Commission said that Meta should disable features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling by default, introduce an effective screen time break mechanism, and reduce system recommendations to reduce user engagement.

Meta disputes the accusations

“We disagree with these preliminary findings, which do not accurately take into account the significant steps we have taken to protect young people,” said Meta spokesman Ben Walters.

“Since the beginning of this investigation, we've launched a teen account feature that automatically protects teenagers and gives parents control — allowing parents to block children's access to Instagram at night and limit daily screen use to 15 minutes.

Meta said it will continue to engage in constructive communication with EU regulators.

“Our starting point is that according to our findings, this design is too addictive and needs to be changed,” said Henna Virkkunen, head of EU science and technology policy.

“The next step is either Meta changes its design, or we'll make a non-compliance decision.”

Meta could face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. The company can respond to these allegations before the European Commission makes a final decision in the coming months.

Global regulatory blockade

In fact, Meta's social networking platform is facing a global regulatory blockade. The company failed to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 29 US state attorneys general last month alleging that Facebook and Instagram are addictive to children.

The European Commission is separately investigating the “rabbit hole effect” caused by Facebook and Instagram recommendation systems, where algorithmic recommendations guide users to similar content, causing users to become addicted to it for a long time. In another case announced in April, the European Commission asked Meta to take more steps to prevent children under 13 from accessing its social networks or face fines.

Meta is also facing intense regulatory scrutiny in India, its core market. At the beginning of July, India issued two warning letters to Meta in a week: first, it ordered the platform to immediately remove illegal content and submit instructions for 7 days due to bad content related to child sexual exploitation in paid Instagram ads; then suspended the WhatsApp username function, fearing that the feature would breed cybercrime. India is Meta's single market with the largest number of users in the world, with hundreds of millions of Instagram and Facebook users and over 500,000 WhatsApp users.

The European Commission will receive expert findings next Monday, which could pave the way for a Europe-wide ban on the use of social media by teenagers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to announce the ban during her State of the Union address in September.