Meta Ordered by E.U. to Alter ‘Addictive Design’ of Instagram and Facebook

Meta was told by European Union regulators on Friday to make major design changes to Instagram and Facebook to make the services less addictive, or risk facing hefty fines.

Regulators in Brussels said the “addictive design” of Meta’s two social media services violated European Union law and that it needed to remove features like “infinite scroll” and the automatic playing of videos. The technology giant should also introduce new “screen time breaks” and adjust its recommendation algorithm to make it “less engagement oriented,” authorities said.

The commission’s findings are preliminary and Meta now has time to respond to the allegations before a final judgment is issued. A fine could run up to 6 percent of Meta’s global revenue, though regulators rarely issue penalties of that size.

The ruling is an unusually direct effort to force specific product design changes. It is the latest sign of the aggressive approach taken by European regulators to confront social media companies over what is seen as intentionally subversive efforts to hook users, especially children. In February, E.U. authorities accused TikTok of using similar design tricks to keep users coming back again and again.

Ben Walters, a spokesman for Meta, said the company disagreed with the findings, which “don’t accurately take into account the significant steps we’ve taken to protect teens.” He said the company has introduced teen accounts that allow parents to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the 27-nation bloc, is also weighing rules that could bar children from social media because of the apps’ addictive features — following Australia’s lead.

Europe’s aggressive regulation of the tech industry has drawn criticism from President Trump, who sees it as an attack on American companies.

In Brussels, officials have said they are weighing where to draw the line between a well-designed app that users enjoy and a harmfully addictive one. The European Union, home to roughly 450 million people, is one of the world’s largest markets for social media, but authorities there have become increasingly skeptical of the ways the companies operate.

On Friday, European regulators concluded that Meta had gone too far. The company was accused of violating a 2022 law, the Digital Services Act, by using design tactics to keep users, especially teens, hooked on Instagram and Facebook.

Authorities said features like personalized recommendations and an infinite scroll that constantly deliver new content “fuel the user’s urge to keep scrolling and shift the brain into autopilot mode.”

Such features lead to “unhealthy habits and compulsive use,” the authorities added.

Regulators said Meta did not adequately assess the risks of its products, including ignoring information about how much time users under the age of 18 spent on Instagram and Facebook at night. At the same time, features like Reels and Stories led to “excessive or compulsive” use of the services, authorities said.

Meta’s existing time-management tools are easily bypassed by younger users and its parental controls are effective only if parents have technical savvy and can devote considerable time to monitoring, regulators said.

“Protecting the physical and mental health of Europeans must be a priority for social media platforms,” Henna Virkkunen, the executive vice president at the European Commission overseeing digital policy, said in a statement. “The Digital Services Act provides a clear framework to hold platforms accountable for the addictive design and effects of their services. We are fully committed to enforcing our legislation in Europe.”

Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels.