The European Union is getting ready to launch a new investigation into Meta over its handling of election-related content, according to a new report in The Guardian. Details of the investigation could be announced “later this week,” but European officials are reportedly concerned about “deceptive advertising and political content.”
According to the Financial Times, the EU has also raised concerns about Russia’s “efforts to undermine upcoming European elections” and other foreign interference campaigns. The EU is set to hold parliamentary elections in June. If the company is found to have run afoul of the Europe’s Digital Services Act, it could be hit with large fines.
EU officials are also “particularly concerned” about Meta’s plan to shut down CrowdTangle in August. The tool has been widely used by researchers and fact checkers for years to study how content spreads across Facebook and Instagram. Dozens of researchers and fact-checking groups signed an open letter to the company last month saying that shutting down the tool ahead of dozens of global elections would be a “direct threat” to election integrity efforts around the world.
“We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms,” a Meta spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. “We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”
Elsewhere, the EU is also investigating Meta over its ad-free subscription plan available to European users. That investigation, which could last up to a year, will look into whether the social media company has violated Europe’s Digital Markets Act, by not offering users a “real alternative” to opt out of data collection.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-european-union-will-reportedly-open-a-new-investigation-into-meta-over-election-policies-174818594.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/the-european-union-will-reportedly-open-a-new-investigation-into-meta-over-election-policies-174818594.html?src=rssLogin to add comment
Other posts in this group
Soon, AT&T subscribers will have the option to ensure that they have access to cell service even in typical dead zones, like deep inside national parks or far-flung rural locations. The mobile carr
Eight TikTok creators are suing the US government in an effort to block a law requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the service or face a US-wide ban. The lawsuit claims the Protect
Fujifilm’s successor to the GFX 100S, its 2021 medium format camera with terrific p
Just over three years ago, Ubisoft announced
