The European Commission today launched a probe to determine whether Meta Platforms Inc.’s child safety efforts may have fallen short of regulatory requirements.

The move comes only weeks after the commission, the European Union’s executive branch, announced another investigation into the social media giant. The latter probe focuses on Meta’s handling of disinformation on its platform as well as several related topics. 

Both investigations relate to the Digital Services Act, a piece of legislation that EU lawmakers approved in mid-2022. The law specifies a series of steps that tech giants must take to prevent the spread of illegal content, disinformation and other societal risks on their platforms. The DSA contains the legal requirements that Meta is suspected of breaching.

The investigation that the EU announced today follows a preliminary analysis of regulatory compliance data from Meta. According to the European Commission, the company may have breached DSA provisions that require it to address potential risks associated with the interface designs of Facebook and Instagram. The EU is concerned that the two platforms’ interfaces may be causing “behavioral addictions in children” and creating “rabbit-hole effects.”

The DSA also requires large online platform operators to prevent minors from accessing inappropriate content. The EU believes that the age verification tools Meta has implemented to that end “may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective.”

A third focus of the probe is Meta’s compliance with DSA provisions that require it to ensure a high level of privacy for minors. The investigation will place an emphasis on the default privacy settings of the recommendation systems that underpin Facebook and Instagram.

“Today we are taking another step to ensure safety for young online users,” said European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. “With the Digital Services Act we established rules that can protect minors when they interact online.”

The probe comes only weeks after the EU began investigating Meta over another set of potential DSA violations. In early April, officials started examining whether the company is complying with DSA rules that require it to tackle deceptive ads, disinformation and coordinated inauthentic behavior on its platforms.

The  probe also has several other focus areas. The EU will investigate potential DSA violations stemming from Meta’s plans to discontinue CrowdTangle, a tool that allows researchers and journalists to track election-related content on its platforms. Officials will also review whether the social media giant is complying with platform transparency requirements.

A company that violates the DSA can face fines equal to up to 6% of its global annual revenue. Additionally, the European Commission may order changes to the business practices that were found to breach the law. Repeat DSA violations can potentially lead to a ban in the EU single market. 

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