The EU preliminarily ruled that Meta and TikTok violated the Digital Services Act

The European Commission stated on Friday that Meta (META.US) subsidiaries Facebook and Instagram, as well as ByteDance's TikTok, have been preliminarily found to violate the EU Digital Services Act by not allowing researchers easy access to platform data and hindering the assessment of whether users are exposed to harmful or illegal content, such as that involving children.

Additionally, Meta has been pointed out by the EU for having insufficient mechanisms for "reporting and removing illegal content," with unnecessary steps and requirements in the reporting process that limit the efficiency of removing illegal content. The process for users to appeal content review results is also overly complicated.

A Meta spokesperson responded that they disagree with the allegations and continue to negotiate with the European Commission. Since the implementation of the Digital Services Act, they have updated content review, appeal processes, and data access mechanisms. A TikTok spokesperson stated that they are reviewing the investigation results but believe that the EU's requirement to open more data conflicts with its earlier General Data Protection Regulation