EU Commission: proceedings against Meta (FB and Instagram). Suspected breach of deceptive advertising and political content

Today, the European Commission opened formal proceedings to assess whether Meta, provider of Facebook and Instagram, may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA). The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated: “this Commission has created means to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries. If we suspect a violation of the rules, we act. This is true at all times, but especially in times of democratic elections”. Von der Leyen adds: “Big digital platforms must live up to their obligations to put enough resources into this and today's decision shows that we are serious about compliance. Protecting our democracies is a common fight with our Member States”. Such alleged breaches concern Meta’s policies and practices on deceptive advertising and political content on its services. In addition, the EU Commission suspects the mechanism for flagging illegal content on services (“Notice-and-Action”) as well as the user redress and internal complaint mechanism do not meet the requirements of the Digital Services Act.
Valentina Bombelli