The EU has officially launched a major investigation into Meta for its alleged failure to eliminate election disinformation. While the European Commission statement does not specifically mention Russia, Meta confirmed to Engadget that the EU investigation is targeting the country’s Doppelganger campaign, an online disinformation operation promoting pro-Kremlin propaganda.
BloombergSources also said the investigation focused on the Russian disinformation operation, describing it as a series of “attempts to reproduce the look and feel of traditional news sources while producing content favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policies.”
The investigation comes a day after France said 27 of the 29 EU member states had been targeted by pro-Russian online propaganda ahead of June’s European elections. On Monday, French Foreign Ministry Jean-Noel Barrot called on social platforms to block websites that “take part in a foreign interference operation.”
A Meta spokesperson told Engadget that the company has been at the forefront of exposing the Russian doppelganger campaign and first brought it to attention in 2022. The company said it has since investigated, disrupted and blocked tens of thousands of assets on the network. The Facebook and Instagram owner says it remains on high alert to monitor the network, while claiming Doppelganger has struggled to successfully build an organic audience for the pro-Putin fake news.
The president of the European Commission said meta-platforms Facebook and Instagram may have violated the Digital Services Act (DSA), the landmark 2022 law that empowers the EU to regulate social platforms. The law allows the European Commission to impose large fines on companies for violations – up to six percent of a company’s annual global turnover, potentially changing the way social enterprises operate.
In a statement to Engadget, Meta said: “We have a well-established process for identifying and mitigating risks on our platforms. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the European Commission and providing them with further details of this work.”
The EC investigation will cover “Meta’s policies and practices regarding misleading advertising and political content on its services.” It is also about “the unavailability of an effective real-time tool for civic discourse and third-party election monitoring ahead of the European Parliament elections”.
The latter refers to Meta’s rejection of its CrowdTangle tool, which researchers and fact-checkers have used for years to study how content spreads on Facebook and Instagram. Dozens of groups signed an open letter last month saying Meta’s planned shutdown during the crucial 2024 global elections posed a “direct threat” to global election integrity.
Meta told Engadget that CrowdTangle only provides a fraction of the publicly available data and would be lacking as a full-fledged election monitoring tool. The company says it is developing new tools on its platform to provide more comprehensive data to researchers and other external parties. It says the company is currently engaging key third-party fact-checking providers to help identify misinformation.
However, with elections in Europe in June and crucial US elections in November, Meta had better start using the new API if the tools are to work when it matters most.
The European Commission gave Meta five working days to respond to its concerns before considering further escalation of the matter. “This Commission has created means to protect European citizens from targeted disinformation and manipulation by third countries,” wrote EU Commission President von der Leyen. “If we suspect a violation of the rules, we take action.”