The tech giant is being investigated for potentially not allowing users to be profiled in ways other that is based on their personal usage, which now contravenes EU law

If found to be in breach, Meta faces a maximum of €20bn in fines, based on a potential penalty of up to 6pc of its annual turnover of €172bn for each of the investigations.

It’s the latest escalation in the EU’s war on Big Tech’s algorithms, which are often accused of leading young teens and children into harmful situations online.

It is also the third investigation opened into Meta in Europe in a week, with the company having been found by the European Commission on April 29 to be in breach of European rules to prevent minors under 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram. That preliminary ruling, if confirmed, could also attract fines of up to 6pc of global revenue.

Under the EU’s recently enacted Digital Services Act, social media giants are not allowed to force people to use recommender systems based solely on user profiles gleaned out of data from sites, services and other types of online behaviour.

Concerns arose in relation to potential dark patterns, or manipulative and deceptive interface designs

In a statement yesterday, Coimisiún na Meán said it had received complaints on the issue and had initiated inquiries in conjunction with the European Commission and other EU regulators.

“Concerns arose in relation to potential dark patterns, or manipulative and deceptive interface designs, which may prevent people from exercising their right to choose a recommender system feed which is not based on profiling,” the regulator said.

“This concern includes the possible inability of users to select and modify a recommender system feed not based on profiling in a direct and easily accessible way, at any time.”

Earlier this year, the European Commission made a preliminary finding TikTok was too addictive by design and that it would need to “change the basic design of its service … disabling key addictive features such as infinite scroll … and adapting its recommender system”.

While previous penalties under European privacy law saw billions in fines from Irish authorities such as the Data Protection Commissioner, the new regulatory action seeks to disable some of the core functionality of what makes the big tech firms dominant.

“Coimisiún na Meán recognises the concerns that many people have about recommender systems and the potential harm that these algorithms can potentially cause by repeatedly pushing harmful content into the feeds of users, especially children and young people,” John Evans, digital services commissioner at Coimisiún na Meán, said.

The regulator describes a recommender system feed based on profiling as comprising “a list of posts, videos, products or articles a person sees that has been chosen and ranked for the user by a system that learns from what they like, interact with, or spend time on. Profiling is the use of automated systems to personalise content or ads based on patterns in a person’s data or behaviour”.

Mr Evans said the investigations will examine whether users can select and modify their preferred recommender system and the functionality to do so and whether the Facebook and Instagram online interfaces deceive or manipulate users away from choosing a recommender system feed not based on profiling of their personal data.

“We want to remind users of very large online platforms, the household name companies most of us would recognise, that they have a right to choose a recommender system feed that is not based on the profiling of their personal data,” he said.

“Furthermore, [these companies] have an obligation to ensure that users can opt for this alternative feed at any time and that it is easily accessible. Platforms also have a duty to ensure that they do not design or operate their interface in such a way as to manipulate users away from exercising their rights.”

It is unacceptable for platforms to prevent people from using their rights under the law

Coimisiún na Meán currently has three other investigations open into X, LinkedIn and TikTok by itself and is involved in four other investigations opened by the European Commission into TikTok, X and Shein.

“Our message is clear,” Mr Evans said.

“It is unacceptable for platforms to prevent people from using their rights under the law, or to try to manipulate people away from making empowered choices about whether or not recommender system feeds control what they see online.”