EU officials are particularly concerned about how Meta platforms are handling Russia’s efforts to undermine the upcoming European elections
European Union regulators are expected to launch an investigation into Meta’s Facebook and Instagram amid growing concerns that the company is not doing enough to tackle disinformation from Russia and other countries, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
According to the same publication, the European Commission is expected to make a recommendation on Monday that regulators believe that Meta’s moderation is not enough to stop the widespread dissemination of political advertising that threatens to undermine the electoral process.
EU officials are particularly concerned about how Meta’s platforms are handling Russia’s efforts to undermine the upcoming European elections. The Commission, however, is not expected to mention Russia in its statement and will only refer to the manipulation of information by foreign actors.
EU officials also fear that the company’s mechanism that allows users to flag illegal content is not easily accessible or user-friendly enough to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation designed to the control of content on the Internet.
The law, which was passed in April last year, includes measures to force platforms to disclose their own measures they take to deal with misinformation or propaganda. If the EU finds Meta to be in breach of the Act, it could be fined up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover.
The move is the latest regulatory action taken by the commission against Big Tech groups as fears grow among member states that Russia is spreading disinformation on social media to undermine democracy ahead of pan-European elections in early June.
The Commission is going to start the investigation based on a report sent by Meta in September about how it handles disinformation risks on its platform; as well as the evaluation of the EU itself.
The investigation will assess whether the way Facebook and Instagram place political content on their sites complies with the law.
Investigators will examine whether Meta failed to mitigate risks as it tries to shut down CrowdTangle, a tool that tells publishers how content is being spread on the site, and outline concerns related to how Meta monitors disinformation to help auditors and reporters.
The committee is expected to give Meta five working days to inform what it will do to mitigate the situation or to warn the social media team of possible DSA action, the report said
There is no set deadline for the end of the investigation and it will depend on Meta’s willingness to cooperate, the EU is expected to say.
For its part, Meta stated that “we have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms.” “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the European Commission and providing them with further details on this project.”
Source :Skai
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