Europe is coming after TikTok and Instagram's addictive feeds
What's the story
The European Union (EU) is preparing to crack down on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram for their "addictive design" features. The move comes as part of a global effort to protect children from the potential harms of social media. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced these plans at the European Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Children in Denmark.
Regulatory measures
EU chief's statement on social media platforms
Von der Leyen said, "We are taking action against TikTok and its addictive design - endless scrolling, autoplay, and push notifications." She also extended the same sentiment to Meta's platforms Instagram and Facebook. The EU chief emphasized that these platforms are not enforcing their own minimum age requirement of 13 years.
Content concerns
EU's age verification app
The EU is also looking into platforms that expose children to harmful content. This includes videos promoting eating disorders or self-harm. Von der Leyen said, "We are investigating platforms that allow children to go down 'rabbit holes' of harmful content - such as videos that promote eating disorders or self-harm." The EU's executive arm has also developed an age verification app with high privacy standards, which can be integrated into digital wallets by member states.
New legislation
Digital Fairness Act (DFA)
The EU plans to introduce the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) later this year. The DFA will target harmful features and manipulative practices on social media platforms. It will ban addictive features, misleading influencer marketing, and other manipulative practices. Von der Leyen stressed that these risks are "the result of business models that treat our children's attention as a commodity."
Ongoing probes
Strengthening the Digital Services Act (DSA)
The DFA will also strengthen the existing Digital Services Act (DSA), which mandates large platforms to do more about illegal and harmful content. Under the DSA rules, the Commission is already investigating TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Meta Platforms's Instagram and Facebook. The investigation into X is over possible risks from deploying Grok in the EU, including the spread of manipulated sexualized images.