On Thursday, Bits of Freedom—a Dutch advocacy organization specifically dedicated to privacy and communication freedom—declared that a judge determined Meta must honor users’ preferences to avoid intrusive personalized feeds. Within two weeks, Meta is required to modify its apps to permit EU users the option of maintaining a chronological feed that does not rely on profiling.
Bits of Freedom initiated legal action against Meta under the DSA, reminding the court that “one of the fundamental aspects of the DSA is that users should have more control over the information they encounter.”
Ultimately, the judge concurred, ruling that Meta—which Bits of Freedom claimed employed “subtle design strategies” to guide users to feeds “where it can display as many interest- and behavior-based ads as possible”—must swiftly implement changes to adhere to the DSA.
Meta chose not to comment on the ruling, while Bits of Freedom cautioned that regions with weak privacy regulations might face threats to democracy as technology firms seek to exert more control over the content displayed in social media feeds.
“For countless individuals, particularly younger ones, social media platforms serve as a primary source of news and information,” Bits of Freedom stated. “Thus, it is vital that users can decide which content is visible on their feeds. Lacking that choice, engagement in public discourse is severely limited.”
Maartje Knaap, a representative for Bits of Freedom, remarked that it’s “unfortunate that we must resort to legal action to ensure Meta follows the law,” emphasizing that users need to manage their feeds particularly in the lead-up to elections.
“It is utterly intolerable that a small number of American tech billionaires dictate how we perceive the world,” Knaap asserted. “This concentration of power threatens our democracy.”
In the US, where data privacy laws are less stringent, advocates share concerns about social media feeds falling under the influence of a select few billionaires—especially after Donald Trump stated he wants TikTok altered to be “100 percent MAGA” when under American ownership. Last year, Meta faced criticism for promoting AI-generated posts linked to misinformation, as reported by NPR noted. The possibility of AI skewing feeds and facilitating the rapid spread of misinformation remains a worry, particularly after Trump utilized his social media platform, Truth Social, to share “a 35-second AI-generated video filled with crude jibes, racial nuances, and strange conspiracy theories,” Ars reported earlier this week.
