"Addicted to the algorithm How Big Tech lobbies to keep us hooked on social media"

As the EU prepares the Digital Fairness Act (DFA) to tackle the addictive nature of social media design, big tech companies are coming together to aggressively protect their business models. With Trumpists and far-right allies likely to join the chorus against the DFA, the Commission’s own drive for deregulation at all costs is not helping the chances of strong legislation. [...]

As the European Commission is preparing rules to rein in the addictive design of social media app –­ as part of the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act – the tech industry is drawing on its considerable lobbying firepower to oppose it. The legislation comes in response to growing concerns about the public health impacts of social media addiction, both for children, adolescents, and adults alike. But the Big Tech giants behind Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media apps are pushing back. Keeping people on the apps for as long as possible is a central part of their business model and restrictions in addictive features would hurt their profits and power. In its lobbying, Big Tech aims to capitalize on the fact that EU decision-makers – with Commission President von der Leyen in the lead – are currently heavily prioritising industrial competitiveness via deregulation over other concerns. This means there are major new obstacles for legislation to pass. [...]

The Commission’s DG JUST department seems to be moving ahead with ambition. “What we will be examining are options precisely to give users more effective control. So, a real possibility, for example, is to turn off such addictive design features,” Maria-Myrto Kanellopoulou, head of the consumer law unit at the DG JUST, said at a conference in early 2025. Measures under consideration to address addictive design, at that stage, included broadening the definition of a “transactional decision” to give consumers, especially minors, more control over engagement features. This included disabling such features by default and enabling users to opt out of algorithm-driven recommendations. A ban on particularly harmful features targeting children was also under consideration. After several delays, the Commission’s proposal for a Digital Fairness Act is now expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. [...]

Big Tech’s lobbying against the DFA

Big Tech corporations and their lobby groups, as well as European tech companies, have wasted no time in attacking the proposed DFA. In autumn 2024 the European Tech Alliance (EUTA) immediately criticised the Commission’s Digital Fairness Fitness Check, arguing it didn’t take into account the impact of the DSA, the Digital Markets Act, the AI Act, and the Data Act dealing with similar topics. EUTA represents European tech companies such as Spotify, Trivago, and Booking. In its meeting with DG JUST on 7 February 2025 the EUTA “expressed skepticism about the need for a DFA” and raised concern about the impact “of an additional layer of rules on competitiveness”. DigitalEurope – whose members include Meta and TikTok – also weighed in, claiming that the challenges identified in the Commission’s analysis of existing law “stem not from gaps in the law, but from inconsistent and insufficient enforcement”. [...]

The list of 96 lobby meetings shows that a wide range of companies and lobby groups are lobbying to influence the DFA, on a variety of different topics that might be covered in the new law. If we focus in on the lobbying around addictive design, it’s clear that the companies owning the most popular social media apps (Snap Inc, TikTok, Meta, and Google) have all been very actively pushing back against restrictions on their use of addictive methods. [...]

Big Tech versus civil society, youth, and parents

There’s a massive and very unequal lobbying battle ahead, between the tech industry with its 900 Brussels-based lobbyists and €150 million-plus lobby spending versus civil society groups like EDRi and BEUC with far, far less resources. But civil society has public opinion on its side and citizens, increasingly fed up with Big Tech and its outsized power, are getting organised.