After TikTok and Youtube, it's now the turn of Meta and Snap. The European Commission announced on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the measures implemented by the two platforms to protect minors, including their "physical and mental health". Meta and Snap have until December 1 to respond. The Commission states that "depending on the evaluation of the responses, it will determine the next steps".
Such a request for information, under the new Digital Services Act (DSA) that came into force at the end of August, does not constitute a challenge at this stage. However, it is a first step in a procedure that can eventually lead to heavy financial penalties in the event of proven and prolonged infringements of the regulations. In extreme cases, fines can reach 6% of the worldwide turnover of the groups in question.
The EU executive opened an investigation against AliExpress on Monday
This legislation imposes new obligations on 19 very large internet players, in particular in the fight against illegal and harmful content, and the protection of children. For the past few weeks, the European Commission, which is responsible for its implementation, has been tightening the screws on platforms.
On 19 October, it sent a request for information to Meta about the dissemination of "terrorist and violent content", hate speech and disinformation in the context of the Israel-Hamas war. Similar investigations target the social networks TikTok (owned by the Chinese group ByteDance) and X (formerly Twitter).
On Monday, the EU executive also opened an investigation into Chinese e-commerce site AliExpress over the alleged distribution of illegal products, including fake medicines. EU Digital Commissioner Thierry Breton was in Beijing on Friday, where he visited the headquarters of Alibaba, AliExpress' parent company, for talks with the group's CEO.
- Tech
- By the Web
- Meta
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- YouTube