A court in the Netherlands has ordered Meta to modify the timelines on Facebook and Instagram, ruling that the current setup violates the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).
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As reported by Reuters, the Dutch court found that Meta must provide users with simpler, non-profiled options for viewing their feeds—specifically ones that don’t rely on the current profiling algorithms.
The court stated that people in the Netherlands “are not sufficiently able to make free and autonomous choices about the use of profiled recommendation systems.”
The key demand of the ruling is that the timeline must honour a user’s choice of a chronological order or any other non-profiled viewing option. Critically, the platform cannot revert to the default, algorithm-driven feed every time a user closes and reopens the app.
The case was brought forward by the Dutch digital rights group, Bits of Freedom. A spokesperson for the group, Maartje Knaap, stated, “It is unacceptable that a few American tech billionaires can determine how we view the world.”
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Meta announced it will appeal the decision, arguing that issues concerning the DSA should be handled by the European Commission and other EU regulators, not by the courts of individual member nations. A Meta spokesperson commented that “Proceedings like this threaten the digital single market and the harmonized regulatory regime that should underpin it.”
Meta faces a potential fine of $117,450 for every day it fails to comply with the order, up to a maximum penalty of $5.8 million.
The DSA, approved in 2022, has become a significant source of contention for Big Tech companies. The EU regulation aims to impose stricter rules on platforms regarding privacy, data security, and the protection of minors. The European Commission has already imposed hundreds of millions of dollars in fines on companies like Apple, Meta, and Alphabet for various DSA violations.
