TL;DRThe European Commission issued preliminary findings on Friday accusing Meta of engineering Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, telling it to disable autoplay and infinite scroll by default or face fines of up to 6% of global revenue. The findings land days before an EU expert panel delivers its recommendation on a minimum social media age.
The European Commission issued preliminary findings on Friday accusing Meta of building Facebook and Instagram to be addictive, giving the company a formal opportunity to respond before Brussels reaches a final decision that could trigger fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. Based on Meta’s 2025 turnover of roughly $201 billion, that ceiling sits at around $12 billion.
The Commission’s case centres on architecture, not content. The investigation, opened in May 2024, found that features such as autoplay, infinite scroll, and highly personalised recommendation feeds “fuel the user’s urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into ‘autopilot mode,’ contributing to unhealthy habits and compulsive use.”
What Brussels wants changed
The Commission told Meta to disable autoplay and infinite scroll in default settings, to implement effective screen-time breaks, and to retune its recommendation algorithm away from pure engagement maximisation. Time management tools already built into the apps, it said, are too easy to dismiss and “do not lead to a meaningful reduction and control of the usage of the service.”
