Are Facebook and Instagram using "deceptive interfaces" to push their users into maintaining a "profiling-based" news feed, described as "toxic"? This is the question posed by four European organizations that filed a complaint on Tuesday, April 15, with the Irish Digital Services Coordinator, Coimisiún na Meán, on behalf of an Irish user of these two social networks.
On Facebook and Instagram, users can choose to face a news feed which is not based on their profile and the recommendation algorithms of Meta, their parent company – content described as less harmful to mental health by associations. In concrete terms, they only see content posted by people they follow, classified in chronological order.
Problem: Internet users must go through several manipulations to choose this news feed, and repeat the operation each time they reopen these applications. By default, it is the news feed based on "profiling" that is displayed.
Meta “has an obvious financial interest in keeping users on the profiling-based feed, even against their will”
However, making this alternative news feed difficult to access is a violation of the DSA, the European Digital Services Regulation, according to privacy and digital rights groups, namely: European Digital Rights (EDRi), Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), Bits of Freedom, and Convocation Design + Research.
For Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor at EDRi cited In a statement published on April 15, "hiding news feed controls from users, and routinely overriding adjustments made by users who wish to avoid having toxic content pushed onto their screens by algorithms, constitutes a clear violation of the DSA." The organizations deplore Meta's "deceptive interfaces" that make it "unnecessarily difficult to choose and curate a content feed that isn't based on profiling."
The reason is simple, they write: news feeds, based on each user's profile, "allow users to more effectively capture their attention and maximize their time on the platform. More time spent on the platform means more ads displayed, which directly increases Meta's revenue. The company therefore has an obvious financial interest in keep users in the feed based on profiling, even against their will," they write.
However, these "recommendation systems largely determine the time we spend with this or that content on social media. They have a significant impact on our lives and our mental well-being," recalls Simone Ruf, deputy director of the Center for User Rights, GFF, quoted in the press release. Contacted by 01net.com this Wednesday, April 16, Meta did not wish to comment on this new legal action. For nearly a year, the American giant has been the subject of several investigations by the European Commission, under the aegis of the DSA, for its policies and practices regarding advertising, content moderation, and the protection of minors.
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