Meta and TikTok have both come under EU scrutiny before for breaching the region’s regulations.
The European Commission, in a preliminary ruling, has found that Meta does not provide Instagram and Facebook users with simple mechanisms to notify illegal content or challenge content moderation decisions.
In its ruling today (24 October), the Commission also found that Meta and TikTok breached their legal obligation to provide researchers with adequate access to public data.
The DSA gives EU users the right to challenge content moderation decisions when platforms such as Instagram and Facebook remove their content or suspend their accounts.
Thousands of users from across the world have complained of Meta suspending their accounts wrongfully and with no human support. While the company has since said that it would fix the issue, the BBC reports that it has denied that a wider problem exists.
This comes as many point to AI-led content moderation as the problem. Both Facebook and Instagram say that “[AI] technology is central to our content review process”.
However, according to the EU, the decision appeal mechanisms of both Facebook and Instagram do not allow users to explain or provide supporting evidence that would substantiate their appeal to retrieve suspended content or their accounts.
“This makes it difficult for users in the EU to further explain why they disagree with Meta’s content decision, limiting the effectiveness of the appeals mechanism,” it said.
Meanwhile, it also found that neither of Meta’s platforms in question provide a “user-friendly and easily accessible” way to flag illegal content, such as those promoting terrorism or child sexual abuse material.
The EU said that Meta’s current system imposes “several unnecessary steps and additional demands on users”, adding that they use deceptive interface designs, which can be “confusing and dissuading” when trying to file complaints with the platform.
Additionally, the Commission found that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok might have put “burdensome procedures and tools” in place for researchers who request access to public data.
Under the DSA, data transparency is a requirement which lets researchers scrutinise the potential impacts of platforms on the society.
However, a lack of simple procedures often “leaves [researchers] with partial or unreliable data, impacting their ability to conduct research, such as whether users, including minors, are exposed to illegal or harmful content”, the Commission added.
The EU’s preliminary findings about Meta’s reporting tool, dark patterns and complaint mechanism are based on an ongoing investigation with cooperation from Ireland’s media watchdog Coimisiún na Meán. The Commission launched separate investigations against the platforms last year.
“Our democracies depend on trust. That means platforms must empower users, respect their rights and open their systems to scrutiny. The DSA makes this a duty, not a choice,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.
The latest findings come after Meta was fined €200m by EU authorities earlier this year under the Digital Markets Act for its ‘pay or consent’ model, which effectively required users to pay up or fork over their data for targeted advertising.
While TikTok could potentially face a nearly €1.4bn fine for a separate possible DSA breach for failing to provide necessary information about the advertisements on its platform.
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