Is the EU About to Force a Redesign of Instagram and Facebook?

The European Commission has preliminarily found Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act over the design of Instagram and Facebook, focusing on features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalised recommendations. The case could become a major test of whether platform architecture itself, not only harmful content, can trigger regulatory action when it contributes to compulsive use and risks to minors and vulnerable adults.

The European Commission's preliminary finding against Meta is not simply another dispute over harmful content, privacy or online advertising. It challenges the design logic that sits at the centre of Instagram and Facebook: endless feeds, automatic video playback, persistent notifications and highly personalised recommendations intended to keep users engaged for longer. If the European Union confirms its findings, the case could establish that the architecture of a social platform, not only the material circulating on it, can become a regulatory liability.

The Commission has preliminarily concluded that Meta breached the Digital Services Act by failing to adequately assess the risks associated with the potentially addictive design of Instagram and Facebook. Its investigation focuses on infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and recommender systems that continuously supply users with personalised content. The Commission argues that these features can encourage people to keep scrolling with limited conscious effort, contributing to unhealthy or compulsive patterns of use.

The finding is particularly significant because it moves European platform regulation deeper into product design. Earlier debates often concentrated on whether companies removed illegal material, protected personal information or moderated harmful posts. This case asks a more fundamental question: what responsibility does a company bear when the normal operation of its service may itself create foreseeable risks?

For Meta, the features under examination are not minor additions that can be removed without consequence. Personalised feeds, Reels, Stories, autoplay and notifications shape how users experience the platforms and how frequently they return. They determine what appears next, how quickly one piece of content follows another and whether users encounter a natural stopping point.

The Commission is examining whether engagement-oriented design is compatible with the Digital Services Act when the company has not sufficiently assessed or reduced its effects on wellbeing, particularly among minors and vulnerable adults. The Commission also said Meta had not adequately considered available information about how much time minors spend on the platforms at night or how the optimisation of formats such as Reels and Stories could contribute to excessive use.

Brussels Is Challenging the Illusion of User Control

Meta has introduced screen-time tools, parental controls and links to mental-health resources, but the Commission's preliminary assessment is that these measures do not effectively counter the risks created by the platforms' underlying design.

Time-management features, including those activated by default for teenage users, can be dismissed easily and do not appear to produce meaningful reductions in usage, according to the Commission. Its assessment also questions the effectiveness of parental controls that require guardians to possess technical knowledge and devote substantial time to understanding how they work. Safety tips and mental-health links hosted on separate support pages were similarly judged insufficient at this stage.

The key issue is therefore not whether users have access to controls, but whether those controls can realistically offset the power of the default experience. A reminder to stop scrolling may have limited value when the platform immediately presents another personalised video. A parental setting may offer little protection if it is difficult to find, configure or supervise consistently.

Digital platforms have often treated wellbeing features as tools that users can choose to activate. The Commission's preliminary position suggests that responsibility cannot be transferred so easily. When companies create an environment built around continuous engagement, optional controls may not be enough to satisfy their obligation to reduce systemic risks.

The Commission has indicated that Meta may need to change the products themselves. Its examples include disabling autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introducing more effective screen-time interruptions and adapting recommendation systems so they are less focused on maximising engagement. These are not yet final orders, but they reveal the regulator's direction: the remedy may need to alter the machinery that drives usage rather than add another warning on top of it.

The Real Battle Is Over the Engagement Economy

The case formally concerns Meta, but its implications extend across a digital economy in which many services compete for attention using similar techniques. Endless feeds, automatic playback, algorithmic recommendations and frequent notifications have become standard design choices because they reduce stopping points and encourage continued interaction.

A final decision against Meta could force other large platforms to reconsider whether their engagement systems meet European risk-assessment and mitigation requirements. The Digital Services Act would then operate not only as a framework for governing content and platform procedures, but as a tool capable of reshaping product architecture.

The Commission opened formal proceedings into Meta's compliance with the legislation on May 16, 2024. It said its preliminary conclusions followed an examination of Meta's risk-assessment reports, internal data and documents, responses to multiple information requests, scientific research and interviews with specialists in several fields, including behavioural addiction.

The investigation also covers Meta's measures for verifying the ages of users below 13, on which the Commission adopted separate preliminary findings on April 29, 2026. Another part of the inquiry continues to examine "rabbit hole" effects, in which recommender systems may repeatedly direct young users towards increasingly narrow or potentially harmful streams of content.

The commercial stakes are difficult to separate from the regulatory ones. Features that increase time spent on a platform also help shape the volume of content users encounter and the opportunities for advertising exposure.

A Fine Would Matter, but Design Changes Would Matter More

The Commission's findings remain preliminary. Meta can inspect the evidence in the investigation file, respond in writing and exercise its right to defence. The European Board for Digital Services will also be consulted before the process reaches a final conclusion. If the Commission confirms its position, it may issue a formal non-compliance decision. A fine could be imposed according to the nature, seriousness, recurrence and duration of the infringement, with the maximum capped at 6% of the provider's total worldwide annual turnover.

The potential penalty will dominate headlines, but the more important outcome may be what Meta is required to change. A financial sanction would punish a confirmed breach. A binding obligation to redesign feeds, recommendations or default settings could alter how millions of people experience social media every day.

Several difficult questions remain. Regulators will need to explain what makes a screen-time break genuinely effective, how a less engagement-driven recommendation system should operate and what evidence would demonstrate that compulsive use has declined. Meta's response will also be essential, particularly any data it presents on the effectiveness of its existing protections.