Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission. Image: Etienne Ansotte/European Union
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the need to act when a tech company violates DSA rules is especially important in the run-up to elections.
The European Commission has opened an investigation into Meta for violating EU rules through “deceptive advertising and political content” on Facebook and Instagram.
In an announcement today (30 April), the Commission said that the suspected infringements of the Digital Services Act (DSA) relates to Meta policies and practices around content across its platforms in the lead up to EU elections in June.
It alleges that Meta has no effective election monitoring tool in place ahead of the elections – especially since it is getting rid of its real-time public insights tool CrowdTangle in August and has no proposed replacement.
By not addressing what it describes as “deceptive advertisements, disinformation campaigns and coordinated inauthentic behaviour” across Facebook and Instagram in the EU, the Commission believes that Meta is in violation of the DSA.
The EU dropped new election guidelines last month for online giants such as Meta, Google and TikTok ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in June.
These include requirements around setting up internal election teams, promoting official information on electoral processes, adopting measures to reduce the risk posed by generative AI and other guidelines for the smooth functioning of the democratic process.
Today we open cases against #Meta for suspected breach of #DSA obligations to protect integrity of elections:
▪️Inadequate ad moderation exploited for foreign interference & scams
▪️Inadequate data access to monitor elections
▪️Non-compliant tool for flagging illegal content pic.twitter.com/ZJHWNDm2MD
— Thierry Breton (@ThierryBreton) April 30, 2024
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU has mechanisms in place to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries. “If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act. This is true at all times, but especially in times of democratic elections,” she said.
“Big digital platforms must live up to their obligations to put enough resources into this and today’s decision shows that we are serious about compliance. Protecting our democracies is a common fight with our member states.”
The Commission also suspects that Meta’s policy of demoting political content through its algorithms on Facebook and Instagram feeds is not compliant with DSA obligations.
“The fast and wide-spread dissemination of opinions and information on social media like Instagram and Facebook provides great opportunities. But online platforms are also vulnerable to the spread of disinformation and foreign interference,” added internal markets commissioner Thierry Breton.
“We suspect [Meta] to be in breach of DSA obligations regarding deceptive advertising and political content, and to fail to provide researchers, journalists and election stakeholders with real-time monitoring tools and effective mechanisms to flag illegal content.”
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