Meta's Addiction Problem: EU Demands Overhaul of Facebook, Instagram Design or Face Billions in Fines

The European Commission announced on Friday that Meta must fundamentally overhaul the design features of Facebook and Instagram, or face significant financial penalties. This marks the second time in 2026 the EU's regulatory body has found Meta contravening its laws, citing a breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA) over what it describes as "addictive design."

At the heart of the Commission's concerns are features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and highly personalized recommendation algorithms. These design choices, the Commission argues, are engineered to maximize user engagement, potentially leading to compulsive use and shifting the brain into an "autopilot mode." If these findings are confirmed, Meta could face a fine of up to 6% of its total global annual turnover.

The Commission highlighted Meta's failure to adequately assess the risks posed by these designs to users' physical and mental well-being, specifically mentioning minors and vulnerable adults. "Evidence also shows that Meta's current mitigation measures failed to effectively tackle the risks stemming from its addictive design," the European Commission stated, noting that existing time management tools on Instagram and Facebook "can be easily dismissed and do not lead to a meaningful reduction and control of the usage of the service."

To address these issues, the Commission is calling on Meta to disable autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introduce more effective screen-time breaks, and modify its recommendation algorithm to be less focused on pure user engagement.

It's important to note that these findings are not final. Meta will have the opportunity to review the evidence presented by the Commission and submit a formal response before any final determination is made.

This latest action follows an April 2026 finding by the EU Commission, which determined that Meta was failing to prevent children under 13 from using Facebook and Instagram. The tech giant's regulatory woes aren't confined to Europe, either.

In a U.S. court filing earlier this week on Monday, Meta disclosed that four unnamed U.S. states are seeking a staggering $1.4 trillion in penalties. These states allege that Meta intentionally designed Facebook and Instagram to addict young users and deliberately misled the public about the safety of its platforms. The story of the EU's announcement was reported by TechCrunch consumer news reporter Aisha Malik.

Meta did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for comment regarding the EU's announcement.

[Original Source](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/eu-threatens-meta-with-fines-over-addictive-features-on-facebook-and-instagram/)