This photo illustration shows various social media apps on an iPhone screen on February 9, 2025 in Bath, England.
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The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, announced on Friday that it had proactively found that both TikTok and Meta violated transparency rules.
It accused the US tech giant of breaching its obligation to give researchers “adequate access” to public data under the EU’s landmark technology law, the Digital Services Act (DSA).
“The Commission also preliminarily finds that Meta is in violation of the obligations of both Instagram and Facebook to provide users with easy mechanisms to notify them of illegal content and to enable users to effectively challenge content moderation decisions,” the statement added.
The Digital Services Act is one of the few EU laws aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech. The commission has also launched a number of investigations under another landmark law known as the Digital Markets Act.
“We disagree with any suggestion that we have violated the DSA and will continue to negotiate with the European Commission on these issues,” Meta spokesman Ben Walters said in a statement.
“The European Union has introduced changes to content reporting options, appeal processes and data access tools since the DSA entered into force, and we are confident that these solutions are in line with what is required by EU law,” he added.
CNBC has reached out to TikTok for comment.
The EU says researchers should have access to data from social media platforms. This would allow the general public to scrutinize the potential physical or mental health effects of this technology.
The commission said in its preliminary findings that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok “may have onerous procedures and tools in place for researchers to request access to publicly available data. This often leaves them with partial or unreliable data, impacting their ability to conduct research, including whether users, including minors, are being exposed to illegal or harmful content.”
The tech companies are now being asked by the commission to review the findings and respond in writing.
If the European Commission’s preliminary findings are upheld, the commission will have the power to issue a non-compliance decision and could face fines of up to 6% of its annual global turnover, which would be a steep price for Meta and TikTok owner ByteDance.
—CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
This is breaking news and will be updated soon.
