BEUC welcomes first steps by the Commission to Meta breaching the DSA as a start towards compliance

We welcome the European Commission’s preliminary findings that Meta has breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) content moderation obligations as a first step towards full compliance and enforcement with European law. Moving forward, we now need effective monitoring and enforcement to ensure consumers are fully protected.

Agustín Reyna, Director-General of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), said:

“Only through deterrent enforcement actions can the Commission ensure the platforms truly protect consumers. We therefore call upon the Commission to closely monitor Meta to confirm changes within their practices.

“These rules can make the difference on whether unsafe, illegal products and scam advertisements will be taken down and harming to consumers, and that minors will be protected online from being shown content inciting self-harm.” 

Our Dutch member Consumentenbond already raised the alarm a year ago about Meta’s failure to meet the obligations set by the DSA to moderate illegal content upon notices. We also welcome the preliminary findings on TikTok and see this decision as the start for the Commission to adopt similar steps against other providers of VLOPS, such as Amazon, where their audit reports have showed shortcomings on the way they allow third-parties to report illegal content to keep consumer safe.