Social media giant engineered platforms to “shift the brain into ‘autopilot mode,'” EU says in new findings.
Eliza Gkritsi
The Meta findings come just days before an EU panel of experts is set to deliver a recommendation on Monday that will give further momentum to calls for setting a minimum age to use social media platforms.
Meta could face fines up to 6 percent of annual revenue for breaching the Digital Services Act if it fails to meet the Commission’s requirements issued on Friday. The tech giant can now examine the evidence the EU executive has gathered against it, and lay out its official defense.
“We disagree with these preliminary findings, which don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens,” Meta spokesperson Ben Walters told POLITICO.
Walters pointed to Teen Accounts, which Instagram launched in 2024. These “automatically protect teens and put parents in control,” he said.
A Commission brushed off that defense, saying these accounts can be easily dismissed and don’t provide enough friction,.
The EU has been investigating Meta since May 2024 over potential breaches of its social media rulebook. The EU executive already accused the company in another set of findings of not doing enough to keep under-13s off its platforms and provide transparency to external stakeholders.
