European Commission initial finding says mechanisms to report and remove illegal content may be ineffective
Instagram and Facebook have breached EU law by failing to provide users with simple ways to flag illegal content including child sexual abuse material and terrorist content, the European Commission has said.
In preliminary finding on Friday, the EU’s executive body said Meta, the $1.8tn California company that runs the social media services, had introduced unnecessary steps in processes for users to submit reports.
It said both platforms appeared to use deceptive design – known as “dark patterns” – in the reporting mechanism in a way that could be “confusing and dissuading” to users.
The commission found this amounted to a breach of the company’s obligations under the EU-wide Digital Services Act (DSA), and meant that “Meta’s mechanisms to flag and remove illegal content may be ineffective”. Meta denies it has breached the act.
