EU says TikTok and Meta broke transparency rules under landmark tech law

The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, said on Friday that it had preliminarily found both TikTok and Meta in breach of its transparency rules.

It accused the U.S. tech giants of breaching their obligation to give researchers “adequate access” to public data under the Digital Services Act (DSA) — the EU’s landmark tech legislation.

“The Commission also preliminarily found Meta, for both Instagram and Facebook, in breach of its obligations to provide users simple mechanisms to notify illegal content, as well as to allow them to effectively challenge content moderation decisions,” it added in a statement.

The Digital Services Act is among a handful of EU legislation designed to keep the power of Big Tech in check. The Commission has also opened numerous investigations under another landmark law known as the Digital Markets Act.

“We disagree with any suggestion that we have breached the DSA, and we continue to negotiate with the European Commission on these matters,” Meta spokesperson Ben Walters said in a statement.

“In the European Union, we have introduced changes to our content reporting options, appeals process, and data access tools since the DSA came into force and are confident that these solutions match what is required under the law in the EU,” he added.