EU Commission sees addiction risk with Instagram and Facebook
The EU Commission accuses Meta of promoting social media addiction among young people with Instagram and Facebook. By disregarding the Digital Services Act, the tech giant now faces substantial billion-euro fines and forced design changes.
The EU Commission sees indications that Facebook and Instagram may promote compulsive use through their design and endanger the mental health of children and young people. This is the result of a procedure that the EU Commission initiated in May 2024 to investigate the addictive potential of the two platforms.
The fundamental aim was to examine whether the two social media platforms, which belong to Mark Zuckerberg's Meta group, violate the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA). This is the basis for taking regulatory measures against Meta. The EU Commission's "preliminary finding" now actually assumes such a violation.
What obligations do Instagram and Facebook violate?
The two Meta platforms are considered "very large online platforms" with more than 45 million users in the EU. This status means they must adhere to special regulations. These include, among other things, the assessment of risks that may arise for minors and vulnerable adults from their use.
Meta has not adequately carried out these risk assessments, as the EU Commission now states. The assessment did not take into account personalized recommendations, autoplay (automatic playback of content) and infinite scrolling – these are design features that are aimed at maximizing usage time and contribute to "unhealthy habits and compulsive use". Meta also did not include existing statistics on night-time use of its platforms and addictive formats such as Reels and Stories in the assessment.
At the same time, Meta has not implemented sufficient risk mitigation measures. Time management tools could be too easily circumvented, and the activation of efficient blocks by parents was too complicated. The measures therefore did not lead to a noticeably shorter usage time. Tips and information on mental health would also not raise sufficient awareness.
Political headwind is increasing
Social media and the risk of addiction – is that nothing new? That's right. After addictive practices have been criticized for years, a lot has happened at the national level recently. In the USA, thousands of lawsuits are pending against social media platforms. One of the best-known cases to date was decided in favor of the young plaintiff in March 2026. In Australia, a social media ban for under-16s came into force at the end of December 2025, and other countries are also debating bans.
The EU's finding on the addictive potential of social media is another weighty voice putting pressure on social media platforms. Already in February, the Commission had published a similar preliminary finding against TikTok, which also referred to addictive design elements.
What does the EU Commission demand?
The preliminary finding does not yet include any laws or penalty demands. It only points out that Meta is violating existing laws and how the company could comply with the DSA.
The Commission believes that Meta must implement fundamental design changes in its apps. For example, it proposes the default deactivation of addictive functions such as autoplay and infinite scrolling. Screen time interruptions should encourage minors to turn to other things.
Meta can now examine the arguments and defend itself. There is no time limit. If Meta does not respond appropriately to the finding, the EU can impose a fine of up to six percent of the provider's worldwide annual turnover. Based on Meta's turnover of around 201 billion US dollars in 2025, this would correspond to more than 12 billion US dollars (about 10.5 billion euros or just under ten billion Swiss francs).
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