The European Commission said Friday it has preliminarily found that both ByteDance-owned (BDNCE) TikTok and Meta (NASDAQ:META) violated the bloc’s transparency requirements under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission preliminarily found both platforms in breach of their obligation to grant researchers adequate access to public data under the act by placing “burdensome procedures and tools to request access to public data.”
It also preliminarily found Meta (NASDAQ:META), for both Instagram and Facebook, in breach of its obligations to provide users simple mechanisms to notify illegal content, as well as to allow them to effectively challenge content moderation decisions.
The findings are part of the commission’s formal proceedings launched into Meta (NASDAQ:META) and formal proceedings to investigate TikTok under the DSA. These proceedings are distinct from ongoing probes against Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok concerning compliance with other relevant EU law.
“Our democracies depend on trust. That means platforms must empower users, respect their rights, and open their systems to scrutiny. The DSA makes this a duty, not a choice. With today’s actions, we have now issued preliminary findings on researchers’ access to data to four platforms. We are making sure platforms are accountable for their services, as ensured by EU law, towards users and society,” said Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.