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April 29, 2026 3:36 PM

Facebook and Instagram must do more to block under-13s, EU warns in Meta charges

Meta Platforms' Facebook and Instagram were charged on Wednesday with breaching landmark EU tech rules and must do more to block children under 13 from accessing the social networks, EU regulators said. The charges or so-called preliminary findings under the Digital Services Act, which requires Big Tech to do more to tackle illegal and harmful content on their platforms, came after a two-year investigation by the European Commission. Meta, which said it disagreed with the preliminary findi...

April 8, 2026 3:23 PM

From Australia to Europe, countries move to curb children’s social media access

Australia in December became the world's first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook. The ban comes amid mounting concerns over the impact of social media on children's health and safety. Below is a summary of what countries and companies are doing to regulate access to social media. AUSTRALIA A landmark law forced major social media platforms to block minors under 16 from Decembe...

February 10, 2026 6:51 PM

Govt asks social media platforms to label, take down AI-generated deepfake content in 3 hours

Taking cognisance of the spread of AI-based deepfakes online, the IT Ministry on Tuesday issued revised guidelines for social media intermediaries like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, directing them to clearly label all AI-generated content and ensure that such synthetic material carries embedded identifiers. The government has set a three-hour deadline for social media platforms to take down AI-generated or deepfake content once it is flagged by the government or ordered by a court. The offi...

December 10, 2025 12:25 AM

Australia’s ban on social media access for under-16s takes effect

Australia has become the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook from midnight. Ten of the biggest platforms were ordered to block children from midnight on Wednesday (1300 GMT on Tuesday) or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million) under the new law, which drew criticism from major technology companies and free speech advocates, but was welcomed by parents and child ...

July 16, 2025 4:27 PM

Facebook privacy practices the focus of $8 billion trial targeting Zuckerberg

An $8 billion trial by Meta Platforms shareholders against Mark Zuckerberg and other current and former company leaders kicks off on Wednesday over claims that they illegally harvested the data of Facebook users in violation of a 2012 agreement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Jeffrey Zients, White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden and a Meta director for two years starting in May 2018, is expected to be one of the first witnesses to take the stand in the non-jury trial befo...

January 20, 2025 6:14 PM

Facebook, X, YouTube to do more against online hate speech, EU says

Meta's Facebook, Elon Musk's X, Google's YouTube and other tech companies have agreed to do more to tackle online hate speech under an updated code of conduct that will now be integrated into EU tech rules, the European Commission said on Monday. Other signatories to the voluntary code set up in May 2016 are Dailymotion, Instagram, Jeuxvideo.com, LinkedIn, Microsoft hosted consumer services, Snapchat, Rakuten Viber, TikTok and Twitch. "In Europe there is no place for illegal hate, either offli...

October 22, 2024 12:47 PM

Facebook owner Meta restarts facial recognition tech in ‘celeb-bait’ crackdown

Three years after Meta shut down facial recognition software on Facebook amid a groundswell of privacy and regulator pushback, the social media giant said on Tuesday it is testing the service again as part of a crackdown on "celeb bait" scams. Meta said it will enroll about 50,000 public figures in a trial which involves automatically comparing their Facebook profile photos with images used in suspected scam advertisements. If the images match and Meta believes the ads are scams, it will block ...

October 17, 2024 2:31 PM

Meta’s oversight board seeks public comments on hate speech moderation

Facebook owner Meta's Oversight Board on Thursday invited comments from the public on the posting of immigration-related content that may be harmful to immigrants, and shared two cases that Facebook moderators decided to keep on the platform. The board plans to assess whether Meta’s decision to only protect refugees, migrants, immigrants and asylum seekers from the most severe attacks on its social media platforms under its hate speech policy is adequate. The board is funded by the social me...

September 17, 2024 5:44 PM

Meta bans RT and other Russian state media networks

Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online. The ban, strongly criticised by the Kremlin, marks a sharp escalation in measures by the world's biggest social media company against Russian state media, after years of more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts...