Thierry Breton Demands Mark Zuckerberg To Overcome Pointed Content To Children

Thierry Breton, head of EU industry (photo: twitter @ThierryBreton)

JAKARTA - Thierry Breton, head of industry at the European Union, will meet Meta Platforms Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg on June 23. He will demand to immediately address content aimed at children, as Meta's voluntary child protection code appears ineffective.

Social media platforms such as Meta's Instagram, ByteDance's TikTok, Alphabet's Snapchat, and YouTube have raised concerns among regulators and users regarding targeted content to children.

"Meta's voluntary code of child protection doesn't appear to work," Breton wrote in a post on Twitter.

"Mark Zuckerberg now has to explain and act immediately," he added. He confirmed what an EU official had told Reuters earlier. "I will discuss it with him at the Meta head office in Menlo Park, California, on June 23," Breton said.

A Meta spokesperson said they have strict policies and technologies to prevent predators from finding or interacting with teens in their apps.

He mentioned that the Meta team had dismantled 27 networks that abused its app between 2020 and 2022, and in January this year, they had disabled more than 490,000 accounts that violated their child's security policies.

"We continue to explore ways to actively counter this behavior, and we have formed an internal team to investigate these claims and immediately address them," Breton said.

Breton stated that Meta should also show the steps they will take to comply with EU online content regulations known as the Digital Services Act (DSA) after August 25, otherwise it will face severe sanctions.

The DSA prohibits types of targeted ads on online platforms, such as ads aimed at children or those using specific personal data categories, such as ethnicity, political views, and sexual orientation. The DSA fine for violations can reach up to 6% of the company's global turnover.