Disable autoplay and infinite scroll or risk fines, EU tells Meta
2 hours ago
- #Addictive Design
- #Meta
- #European Union
- The European Commission has preliminarily found that Meta's Facebook and Instagram features like autoplay, infinite scroll, and personalized content recommendations are addictive and harmful to users' physical and mental wellbeing, particularly for minors and vulnerable adults.
- Meta has been given an opportunity to dispute these claims and has defended its actions, highlighting the introduction of Teen Accounts that allow parental controls such as blocking nighttime access and capping daily screen time at 15 minutes.
- The EC criticized Meta's mitigation efforts as insufficient, stating that time management tools and parental controls are not effectively tackling the risks, and recommended disabling addictive features by default, implementing screen time breaks, and adjusting the recommender system to be less engagement-oriented.