The EU has launched formal proceedings against Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, amid concerns it is not doing enough to counter disinformation before the EU elections in June.
Thierry Breton, commissioner responsible for the internal market, has given the tech firm five days to address Commission concerns that it is breaching new laws.
Breton warned that the “integrity of elections” was an “enforcement priority” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), that came into force in August, and the Commission was ready to take “all necessary measures to defend our democracy”.
In a statement the European Commission said the “suspected infringements” by Meta cover policies and practices relating to deceptive advertising and political content.
It also expressed concerns about the lack of effective monitoring of election content and a potentially inadequate mechanism for flagging illegal content.
“As a provider of platforms with wide reach and opinion building relevance in Europe, Meta has a legal responsibility under the DSA to take measures to ensure the integrity of elections and civic discourse.
“We are launching these formal infringement proceedings against Meta today to make sure that effective actions are taken in particular to prevent that Instagram’s and Facebook’s vulnerabilities are exploited by foreign interference,” he added.
The Commission cited concerns over Meta’s plan to discontinue CrowdTangle, a public insights tool that allows real-time disinformation researchers, journalists and others across the EU to monitor the spread of fake news and attempts to suppress voting.
Under sweeping new laws forcing tech firms to regulate their own content for compliance with the law in the EU, Facebook and others are obliged to have systems to guard against the systemic risk of election interference.
The Commission says it suspects “Meta has failed to diligently assess and adequately mitigate risks related to Facebook’s and Instagram’s effects on civic discourse and electoral processes and other systemic risks.”
after newsletter promotion
“Given the reach of Meta’s platforms in the EU (accounting for more than 250 million monthly active users), and in the wake of the European elections that will take place on 6-9 June 2024 and a series of other elections to take place in the member states, such deprecation could result in damage to civic discourse and electoral processes in relation to the mis- and disinformation tracking capabilities, identification of voter interference and suppression,” the European Commission said in a statement.
The decision comes just days after the Commission carried out stress tests on all the big social media platforms to determine whether there were adequate safeguards in place against Russian disinformation.
The European parliament has also today released tips to voters with a list of previous incidents, including claims that only pens with certain coloured ink will be accepted on ballot papers.
The European Commission said proceedings against Meta include suspicions that it is unable to cope with a proliferation of adverts “that present a risk to civic discourse, electoral processes and fundamental rights, including consumer protection rights”.
It has also challenged its policy of demoting political content in its recommender systems in Facebook and Instagram, something that users have complained about in relation to public discussions about the Middle East.
And thirdly, it has cited the “non-availability” of an effective third-party, real-time civic discourse and election monitoring tool” before the EU elections.
Source: www.theguardian.com