The EU said it had sent formal requests for information to Meta, Facebook’s parent company (representative)
Brussels:
The EU on Friday added Meta and Snap to a growing list of tech companies it is investigating to see how they comply with a new law intended to stop illegal online content.
The European Commission said it had sent formal requests for information to Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, and Snap, operator of the Snapchat image and messaging app, about the measures they have taken to protect minors online.
You have until December 1st to respond.
The investigations are only a first stage under the EU digital services law that came into force in August and do not themselves represent any evidence of legal violations or a step to punish the companies.
On Thursday, the Commission opened similar investigations into YouTube and TikTok, including to find out what measures they have taken to protect minors from illegal and harmful content.
The DSA also prohibits targeted advertising to minors under 17 years of age.
If a platform is found to be violating the DSA, it could face fines of up to six percent of global sales.
The EU has also launched further investigations into TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Meta for disinformation following the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7.
And it is investigating AliExpress, the online retailer owned by China’s Alibaba, to get more information about what the company is doing to protect consumers from the sale of illegal products, including counterfeit medicines.
The DSA is part of the European Union’s powerful arsenal to bring Big Tech under control.
TikTok and YouTube are also among 22 services listed by the EU in September that face tighter restrictions on how they do business under the DSA’s sister law, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Companies must be fully compliant with the DMA by March 2024.
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Source : www.ndtv.com