(Finance) – The European Commission sent to Meta Platformsthe American social media giant that controls Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, a Request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Following the CrowdTangle shutdown On 14 August 2024, the Commission is now asking Meta to provide more information on the measures taken to comply with its obligations. allow researchers to access data publicly accessible on Facebook and Instagram’s online interface, as requested by the DSA, and on its plans to upgrade its election and civic speech monitoring capabilities.
Specifically, the Commission requests Content Library Information and Meta’s application programming interface (API), including their eligibility criteria, application process, accessed data, and functionality.
On 30 April 2024, the Commission launched a formal procedure against Meta under the DSA, which is ongoing. One of the complaints focused on the unavailability of a tool for monitoring elections and civic debate in real time effective third-party monitoring ahead of the European Parliament and national elections, as well as shortcomings in Meta’s provision of access to publicly available data to researchers. To alleviate the Commission’s concerns ahead of the European Parliament elections, Meta rolled out new features in CrowdTangle at the end of May, in particular 27 new public real-time visual dashboards, one for each Member State, to enable real-time third-party election and civic debate monitoring. These features have now been discontinued.
Meta must provide the requested information by September 6th 2024. Based on the assessment of the responses, the Commission will determine the next steps, which may include interim measures and non-compliance decisions. The Commission may also accept commitments made by Meta to address the issues raised in the proceedings.
(Photo: Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash)