The European Union on Wednesday alleged Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta violated the bloc’s law by not doing enough to prevent children from accessing Facebook and Instagram.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said its two-year preliminary investigation concluded Meta breached the Digital Services Act by failing to prevent children under 13 from accessing the social media platforms. The commission could fine Meta up to 6% of its total global annual turnover if the findings are confirmed by its final investigation.
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“Our preliminary findings show that Instagram and Facebook are doing very little to prevent children below this age from accessing their services,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said in a statement. “Terms and conditions should not be mere written statements, but rather the basis for concrete action to protect users – including children.”
The development caps a rough couple of weeks for Meta. In March, Meta and YouTube were found liable in a landmark social media addiction trial. Zuckerberg was forced to take the witness stand at the time. The same month, Meta was ordered to pay a $375 million fine for violating New Mexico law mandating disclosure about mental health risks that its social media platforms could have for minors.
In the latest case, the EU Commission is concerned that Instagram and Facebook are not adequately enforcing the minimum age requirement of 13. Minors can input a false birth date, with no controls in place to verify it, while mechanisms to report such accounts are “difficult to use,” the commission said.
Meta pushed back against the EU’s findings in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
But the company pledged to “engage constructively” with the bloc, and suggested it will announce additional measures targeting underage users next week. Zuckerberg’s technology giant has the opportunity to respond to the charges and make enforcement changes before the commission issues a final decision.
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“We disagree with these preliminary findings,” a Meta spokesperson said. “We’re clear that Instagram and Facebook are intended for people aged 13 and older and we have measures in place to detect and remove accounts from anyone under that age.
“We continue to invest in technologies to find and remove underage users and will have more to share next week about additional measures rolling out soon,” the statement continued. “Understanding age is an industry-wide challenge, which requires an industry-wide solution, and we will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission on this important issue.”
