Brussels (EFE).- The European Commission asked this Thursday the executive director of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, to “act immediately” to protect minors on Instagram, after an investigation by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and the universities from Stanford and Massachusetts Amherst to prove that the app promotes pedophile rings.
“Meta’s voluntary code for child protection does not seem to work. Now, Mark Zuckerberg must explain himself and act immediately,” said the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, on his official Twitter account.
Breton, in fact, will meet with Zuckerberg on June 23 at Meta’s headquarters in Merlo Park (California, United States), given the imminent application of the European Union’s digital services law.
Quick removal of illegal content
That regulation will force the big digital platforms to quickly remove illegal content and be transparent about the design of their algorithms, which determine what users see on the internet and social networks.
“After August 25, under the digital services law, Meta will have to show that it takes action or face strong sanctions,” Breton recalled.
The regulations allow the European Commission to impose fines of up to 6% of global turnover on large technology companies that fail to comply with the requirements.
Research on Instagram
According to joint research by The Wall Street Journal and the universities of Stanford and Massachusetts Amherst, the Instagram algorithm helps connect and promote a vast network of accounts dedicated to pedophilia and buying sexual content from minors.
Investigators found that Instagram – which has more than 1.3 billion users – allowed people to search for explicit hashtags and sometimes even emoticons that linked them to accounts that used the terms to advertise the sale of child sexual material and “meetings” with them. minors.
Meta acknowledged the problems within its compliance operations, telling the WSJ that it has established an internal working group to address the issues raised.
