The European Commission has told Meta to change how Instagram and Facebook are designed, saying features like autoplay and endless scrolling may break EU rules that protect young people online.
On Friday, regulators in Brussels said Meta's apps push people to keep scrolling for too long. They want autoplay — where videos start on their own — and infinite scroll, where the feed never really ends, to be turned off by default. They also want real screen-time breaks and a recommendation system that does not try to hook you into staying online as long as possible.
Some countries are also working on their own rules. France, Spain, Greece and Austria want a minimum age for social media, and Germany is looking at something similar. Meta says it has already done a lot to protect young people and has been using AI to check the ages of users on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
If Meta does not make the changes, it could be fined up to six percent of its global yearly income, which could be more than 12 billion euros. EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said: "Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for the platforms." Nothing changes right away, though — the findings are still preliminary and Meta can respond before anything is final.