EU to Meta and TikTok: You’re Flunking Transparency under our New Tech Rulebook

CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, and Politico contributed to this report.

Brussels just turned up the heat on two of the world’s biggest social platforms. In preliminary findings released Friday, the European Commission said Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, along with TikTok, likely broke the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA) by making it too hard for independent researchers to access public data — one of the law’s core transparency requirements.

Regulators went further with Meta, saying Facebook and Instagram don’t give people simple, effective tools to flag illegal content (think terrorist propaganda or child sexual abuse material) or to challenge moderation decisions. The Commission called out “burdensome procedures,” “unnecessary steps,” and even “deceptive interface designs” that could dissuade users from reporting harmful content — undermining the DSA’s “notice and action” system that’s supposed to help police illegal posts.

Both companies pushed back. Meta said it disagrees with any suggestion it breached the rules and pointed to changes it’s made in the EU to reporting options, appeals and data access since the DSA went live. TikTok said it’s “committed to transparency,” touting access it has granted to nearly 1,000 research teams. But it also argued that loosening data safeguards could conflict with the bloc’s privacy law, the GDPR, and asked regulators to clarify how the two regimes should be reconciled if they clash.

Why the researcher access fight matters: the EU says outside scrutiny is essential to understand how platforms shape everything from mental health to the spread of illegal content, including what minors see. Brussels’ early read is that the data tools offered by Facebook, Instagram and TikTok leave academics with partial or unreliable datasets, hobbling that kind of analysis.

Nothing’s final yet. Meta and TikTok can examine the Commission’s evidence and respond in writing. Still, the stakes are enormous. If the findings stick, the Commission can issue a non-compliance decision and fine up to 6% of a company’s global annual revenue — a potentially eye-watering bill for Meta and TikTok’s owner, ByteDance.

Friday’s move is part of a broader EU enforcement push. The Commission has multiple open DSA probes — TikTok’s investigation kicked off last year and has been expanded; Meta’s began in April and widened in May. Other platforms, from Elon Musk’s X to China’s Temu and AliExpress, have also faced accusations under Europe’s expanding digital rulebook, which sits alongside the competition-focused Digital Markets Act. So far, no DSA fines have landed, but pressure is clearly building.

EU officials framed the action as a defense of user rights and public oversight, not censorship. The message to Big Tech is blunt: open up your systems to scrutiny, make it easy to report and appeal, or pay for it.