Facebook, Instagram in EU crosshairs for election disinformation

Facebook parent company Meta's headquarters in Dublin. Meta, which has more than 250 million monthly active users in the European Union, defended its risk-mitigating process. Picture: Brian Lawless

Facebook and Instagram have failed to tackle disinformation and deceptive advertising in the run-up to European Parliament elections, the European Commission has said as it opened an investigation into suspected breaches of EU online content rules.

The move by EU tech regulators came amid concerns about Russia, China, and Iran as potential sources of disinformation, but also inside the EU, with some political parties and organisations seeking to attract voters with lies in the June 6-9 vote to select the next five-year parliament.