The news: Regulators in the EU found in a preliminary report that Meta violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) over its “addictive” platform designs on Instagram and Facebook. The social media giant could be forced to redesign both apps or face fines of up to 6% of its total annual revenues if the investigation’s findings are confirmed.

The European Commission (EC) is focusing on features like infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and the apps’ personalized recommendation algorithms. Design changes could include disabling infinite scroll and autoplay by default, requiring screentime breaks, or redesigning its algorithms to be less focused on boosting engagement.

Meta disagreed with the findings, saying the EC isn’t taking into account the “significant steps” it has taken to protect younger users, including its Teen Accounts system, per CNBC.

What it means: This is one of the clearest attempts yet to regulate engagement optimization itself on social media, rather than privacy or content moderation. The features the EC called out are core mechanisms, not isolated elements, that help Meta increase time spent, expand ad inventory, and drive usage.

If Meta is forced to make changes, effects could include:

• Less user exposure to ads. If Meta is pushed to make feeds less addictive or reduce recommendation intensity, users may spend less time in its apps, limiting impressions and inventory growth.
• Challenges to predictable performance advertising. Meta’s recommendation systems help determine which content and ads users see. Constraints on those systems could affect targeting and campaign performance.
• A new testing ground for regulation. Changes introduced to comply with EU rules could eventually influence Meta’s global product roadmap or inspire similar regulation elsewhere, especially in the US where Meta faces a $1.4 trillion lawsuit brought on by four states over youth safety risks.

Implications for marketers: Brands that rely heavily on Meta’s targeted ad offerings should prepare for the possibility that engagement-driven performance will be less consistent in regulated markets.

If features like infinite scroll are scaled back, advertisers may need to adjust expectations around reach, frequency, and conversion efficiency and lean more on compelling creative, creator partnerships, and owned customer relationships.

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