The single sharpest fact in one or two punchy sentences. Who did what, where, when, and why it matters. Not a summary of everything — the one thing that makes someone stop scrolling.
The European Union has told Meta to change Facebook and Instagram's 'addictive design' or face a heavy fine. The EU accused Meta of failing to limit the risks on its platforms, especially for children and vulnerable adults. The European Union has in recent months stepped up its efforts to force Big Tech to better protect users online, especially children. Inadequate tools are part of the problem — Facebook's and Instagram's time management tools can be easily dismissed while parental controls are only effective if parents have some technical knowledge.
The European Union's tech chief, Henna Virkkunen, said that protecting people's physical and mental health must be a priority for social media platforms. Brussels accused the US tech giant of failing to limit the risks the platforms posed to users, especially children and vulnerable adults, because of features designed to keep them on Facebook and Instagram. Of particular concern are those like endless scroll, highly personalised feeds and the automatic playback of videos. Meta must change Facebook's and Instagram's "addictive design" or face a heavy fine, the EU warned on Friday. The European Commission said it “considers that Meta needs to implement design changes to both Instagram and Facebook” after concluding the platforms broke EU content rules.
Changes could include “disabling key addictive features such as ‘autoplay’ and ‘infinite scroll’ by default, implementing effective ‘screen time breaks’, and adapting its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented.” Meta said it disagreed with findings but would continue to “engage constructively” with the EU. If the regulator’s views on Meta are confirmed, the EU can slap a fine of up to six percent of the company’s total worldwide annual turnover.
A senior EU official insisted Brussels did not want to punish companies. The official said, “We want to bring about change, and if we can get that change via commitments then we would be most happy.”
The findings come before an expert panel tasked by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen delivers its recommendations on Monday on how the EU can better shield children online from inappropriate content. Von der Leyen faces pressure to act, with some EU states including France pushing for bloc-wide bans on social media for minors following Australia’s groundbreaking ban for under-16s.