(Brussels) European users of the Facebook and Instagram platforms will have more control over the content displayed, the American technology giant Meta announced on Tuesday, under new EU rules which become binding from the end of August.
The European Digital Services Act (DSA) imposes stronger rules on internet giants on data privacy, child protection, combating disinformation and hate speech.
Nineteen “very large platforms” – including Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram), the Americans Amazon, Twitter (renamed X), Apple, Google and Microsoft, or the Chinese TikTok – will have to submit to it from next week, on pain of heavy fines.
Facebook and Instagram users in the EU will now have the ability to see types of content not based on “profiling” – as opposed to automatic selection determined by algorithms based on a user’s perceived interests or promoting viral content. This was a DSA requirement.
“We are now giving our European community the ability to see and discover in Reels, Stories, Search and other parts of Facebook and Instagram content that is not classified by Meta” according to its automatic systems , said Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of international affairs.
“For example, on Facebook and Instagram, users will be able to see only Stories and Reels from people they follow, listed in chronological order from newest to oldest,” he explained in a post. blog post.
Meta has already given Facebook and Instagram users more control over how content that appears on their main feed is selected and displayed, but the new changes go further.
Similarly, the Chinese social network TikTok announced in early August modifying its operation to allow users to deactivate the automatic display of content determined by algorithm, a feature often considered addictive or intrusive.
In addition, Meta will index and archive all advertisements targeting Internet users in the EU, a measure demanded by the EU.
The Dutch travel site Booking.com, also among the 19 major platforms targeted, also announced the creation of a “directory” listing the advertisements that appear on its site.
Finally, Meta will provide more details on how the artificial intelligence systems it uses to rank content on its platforms work, again a European requirement, Clegg said.
Some 1,000 Meta employees are working to implement the DSA measures, he said.
