US technology company Meta has been ordered by the European Commission to remove addictive features from its social media platforms, including infinite scrolling, or face a hefty fine.
On Friday, the EU executive accused the Big Tech company of not having assessed the health risks of its social media platform’s intentionally addictive design on the physical and mental well-being of users, including minors.
Preliminary findings in the Commission’s investigation showed that Meta’s social platforms are designed to encourage users to continue constantly scrolling. It adds that this violates the EU’s Digital Services Act.
The company does this to maximise its advertising revenue: the longer users spend on the platform, the more adverts Meta can sell and the more personal data it can collect on each user.
"Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for social media platforms," said Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, on Friday.
"The Digital Services Act provides a clear framework to hold platforms accountable for the addictive design and effects of their services. We are fully committed to enforcing our legislation in Europe," she added.
The Commission's preliminary findings are part of its formal proceedings to investigate Meta's compliance with the Digital Services Act, launched on 16 May 2024.
Unhealthy habits
The investigation focused on features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and the platforms' highly personalised recommender systems, as seen on their Instagram and Facebook social media platforms.
On Friday, it was announced that Meta did not properly assess the risks associated with the constant scrolling, which is also known as ‘doomscrolling’.
Both Facebook and Instagram have features which fuel the user’s urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into ‘autopilot mode’, contributing to unhealthy habits and compulsive use, according to the European Commission.
Notably, it mentions the highly personalised recommendations, autoplay and the infinite scroll feature, which constantly show users new content, leading to physical and mental health issues for users.
Henna Virkkunen
The Commission also accuses the US tech giant of having disregarded available information about hooking children onto excessive or compulsive use of the services, either through night-time scrolling or by making reels and stories as addictive as possible by design.
For example, Facebook and Instagram give greater space to reels that "hook users in three seconds" by using bold text on the video or an immediate physical action to stop people from scrolling past. This format was popularised by TikTok, which is also facing an EU investigation into its addictive design that harms its users.
Concerns about infinite scrolling emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic, when individuals spent more time on social media consuming anxiety- and distress-inducing news. Indeed, health experts in a Harvard study from 2024 underlined that "doomscrolling has emerged as an insidious threat to our minds and bodies".
Certain countries are already banning social media for under-16s, including the UK and Australia, while France, Spain, Denmark, and Greece are in various stages of implementing new laws which bring in age limits.
This move has caught on largely due to political frustration at US social media companies' lack of action when asked by governments to better protect their users, notably minors, from harmful or illegal content.
Remove addict features, EU tells Meta
On Friday, the European Commission said it has evidence that shows how Meta's current protection measures "failed to effectively tackle the risks stemming from its addictive design."
Its parental control system was only found to be effective if parents possess "adequate technical expertise", as well as devote effort and time to understanding it effectively. The EU stressed that this undermines the measures’ effectiveness in addressing the risks posed by Instagram and Facebook's addictive design.
The Commission have ordered Meta to disable key addictive features such as 'autoplay' and 'infinite scroll' by default, implement effective 'screen time breaks', and adapt its recommender system to make it less engagement-oriented.
Credit: Unsplash
If the preliminary findings are confirmed and Meta does not take any action to better protect EU users, the company risks a fine which could go up to 6% of its annual turnover.
"We disagree with these preliminary findings, which don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens," a spokesperson from Meta told CNBC International on Friday.
Separately, the Commission continues its investigation into so-called ‘rabbit hole' effects caused by the design of Facebook's and Instagram's recommender systems, which may exploit minors' vulnerabilities and inexperience.
Meta will now be able to exercise its right to defence. It may examine the documents in the Commission's investigation files and reply in writing to the Commission's preliminary findings.
In February, a report exposed the huge €150 million lobbying effort by US social media companies to influence the European Commission’s discussions over the addictive designs of their social media.
"Keeping people on the apps for as long as possible is a central part of their business model, and restrictions on addictive features would hurt their profits and power," Olivier Hoedeman, coordinator and author of the report by the Brussels-based Corporate Observatory Europe, told The Brussels Times back in February.
