EU elections 2024: Facebook-Instagram under investigation before European elections, why was this step taken?

EU elections 2024: Accusations against Facebook during elections are nothing new. The European Union has ordered an investigation against Meta’s social media platforms Facebook and Instagram before the European elections.

The European Union has ordered an investigation against Meta’s social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. This order of the union has come just before the European elections to be held in June. In the investigation, political ads, consumer protection and misleading information run on meta platforms will be investigated.

The European Union’s Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton, said the investigation sought to ascertain the extent to which Instagram and Facebook could be subject to foreign interference and how effective its policies are at preventing outside interference. Apart from this, Executive Vice President of the Commission, Margrethe Vestager has said that we feel that the moderation of Meta is insufficient to prevent any external attack and there is a lack of transparency in the moderation processes.

Facebook has been under suspicion

During elections, many allegations have been made on Facebook like wrong information and agenda pushing. In the elections in India as well as America, Meta has been accused of supporting one party and reducing the reach of the other. Apart from this, recently the European Union has expressed concern that Russia can spread its agenda through Facebook in the European elections. Let us tell you that European elections are to be held from 6 to 9 June.

Investigation is being done through the Digital Services Act

This investigation has been initiated under the Digital Services Act of the EU. This law has been made to crack down on illegal content online. Facebook and Instagram are among the 23 platforms that have to follow this law. For non-compliance or if found guilty in the investigation, Facebook may have to pay a fine of up to 6% of its annual turnover.