The European Commission has opened a formal investigation against Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, amid concerns it is failing to counter disinformation from Russia and other countries ahead of the EU elections in June.
In a press release on Tuesday, the Commission said the formal proceedings will assess whether the social media giant may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Potential Infringements
The DSA designated Facebook and Instagram as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) on 25 April 2023, because they both have more than 45 million monthly active users in the EU.
Therefore, both companies had to start complying with a series of obligations set out in the DSA, four months from their designation. If the EU finds Meta to be in breach of the legislation, it could face fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.
The suspected violations under the Commission’s investigation include Meta’s policies and practices related to deceptive advertising and political content on its services. They also involve the lack of effective monitoring of election content and a potentially inadequate mechanism for flagging illegal content.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “This Commission has created means to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries. If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act.”
Areas of Focus
According to the press release, the EU Commission’s investigation will focus on 4 main areas:
- Deceptive advertisements and disinformation.
- Visibility of political content.
- The non-availability of an effective third-party real-time civic discourse and election-monitoring tool.
- The mechanism to flag illegal content.
The Commission is concerned that Meta’s moderation system is not doing enough to stop the dissemination of political advertising that could undermine the electoral process, reported the Financial Times.
EU officials are particularly worried about the way Meta’s platforms were handling Russia’s efforts to undermine upcoming European elections, although the Commission’s statement doesn’t mention Russia.
Election Monitoring
Another area of concern is Meta’s plan to discontinue CrowdTangle, a public insights tool that enables real-time election-monitoring by researchers, journalists and civil society.
The Commission has given Meta 5 working days to respond to a request for information about actions taken to tackle the situation. It has reserved the right to take measures in case those actions are deemed insufficient.
In a statement, Meta said: “We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”
Russian Influence
Ahead of the EU Parliamentary election, from June 6-9, 2024, fears are growing that Russia could launch disinformation campaigns to try to influence votes to its favor.
According to BBC, AI Forensics, a non-profit research organization, uncovered a network of 3,826 pages spreading “pro-Russian propaganda” across Meta’s platforms.
That campaign, dubbed “Doppelganger”, had reached 38 million users between August 2023 and March 2024, and less than 20% of the ads had been moderated by Meta as political, AI Forensics said.
What’s Next?
After opening investigation proceedings, the EU Commission will continue to gather evidence by sending additional requests for information, conducting interviews or inspections.
This allows the Commission to take further enforcement steps, such as interim measures, and non-compliance decisions. There is no set deadline for the investigation. The duration of the investigation will depend on several factors, including the company’s willingness to cooperate with the Commission.
This investigation follows a separate probe launched in March into the dissemination of illegal content, disinformation and violent material on “X.”
