In this photo illustration, iPhone screens display various social media applications on February 9, 2025 in Bath, England.
Ana Barclay | Getty Images News | fake images
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said on Friday that it had preliminarily found that both TikTok and Meta breached its transparency rules.
He accused US tech giants of violating their obligation to give researchers “adequate access” to public data under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s landmark technology legislation.
“The Commission also preliminarily found that Meta, for both Instagram and Facebook, failed to meet its obligations to provide users with simple mechanisms to report illegal content, as well as allow them to effectively challenge content moderation decisions,” it added in a statement.
The Digital Services Act is among a handful of EU laws designed to keep the power of Big Tech in check. The Commission has also opened numerous investigations under another landmark law known as the Digital Markets Act.
“We disagree with any suggestion that we have breached the DSA and continue to negotiate with the European Commission on these matters,” Meta spokesman Ben Walters said in a statement.
“In the European Union, we have made changes to our content reporting options, appeals processes and data access tools since the DSA came into force and we are confident that these solutions match what is required by law in the EU,” he added.
A TikTok spokesperson told CNBC in a statement that it “is committed to transparency and values ​​the contribution of researchers” to its platform and the social media industry as a whole.
“We have made significant investments in data sharing and to date almost 1,000 research teams have had access to data through our research tools,” the spokesperson said.
“We are reviewing the European Commission’s conclusions, but the requirements to facilitate data protection put the DSA and the GDPR in direct tension. If it is not possible to fully comply with both, we urge regulators to clarify how these obligations should be reconciled,” they added.
The EU says researchers should have access to data from social media platforms as this allows the public to examine any potential impact of technology on physical or mental health.
The Commission said in its preliminary findings that Facebook, Instagram and TikTok “may have implemented burdensome procedures and tools for researchers to request access to public data. This often leaves them with partial or unreliable data, affecting their ability to conduct investigations, such as whether users, including minors, are exposed to illegal or harmful content.”
The Commission now invites technology companies to examine its findings and respond in writing.
If the Commission’s preliminary findings are confirmed, it has the power to issue a non-compliance decision that could carry a fine of up to 6% of total global annual turnover, a considerable amount for ByteDance, owner of Meta and TikTok.
Meta also faced a 200 million euro ($228.4 million) fine under the Digital Markets Act in April, when the Commission exercised its new competition powers for the first time. The fine was related to how users consented to data collection.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s data transfer to China also led to Ireland’s protection authority fining it €530 million earlier this year.
—CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
