EU flexes arms as it launches probe against Meta over disinformation concerns
Meta
The European Union has launched a probe against US tech giant Meta over allegations that it has not done enough to rein in disinformation and foreign interferenceahead ofupcoming EU elections. The European Commission said Monday (Apr 29) the investigation was focussed on Meta’s policy towards foreign advertisersas well asthe closure of a tool widely used by journalists and civil groups to monitor trends on the social media site.
Is Meta violating EU’s Digital Services Act?
With the latest action, the regulators are flexing the Digital Services Act,theEU’s prime law governing online platforms.
Meta is drawing flak for lowering the visibility of political content in the users’feedas EU regulators say this could be violating DSA’s transparency rules. Additionally, they claim Meta is not providing users with tools to report illegal content on the platform, another violation of the DSA.
Meta also discontinued CrowdTangle, a widely-used toolused by civil society groupsto track trending conversations on Facebook and Instagram.The tool will go offline afterAugust 14.
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EU says Meta’s decision to discontinue the tool without providing an efficient alternative “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, and the overall real-time transparency provided to fact-checkers, journalistsandother relevant electoralstakeholders.”
How canEU punish Meta?
As per DSA, if allegations against Meta are confirmed, theEU can impose fines of up to 6per centof the company’s total global revenue.
Meta has said the company will cooperate with the EU authorities.
“We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms,” a spokesperson for the company said. “We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work,” the statement added.
Last fall, Meta submittedrequired documents to the EU in which it highlighted how it plans to tackle risks associated with its online tools. However, the concerns are that Meta has failed to do its job diligently.
(With inputs from agencies)