Civil society files DSA complaint against Meta for toxic, profiling-fueled feeds
By Jan Penfrat and Simone Ruf
On 15 April 2025 EDRi, Bits of Freedom, GFF and Convocation Research + Design jointly filed a complaint with Ireland’s Coimisiún na Meán (Meta’s lead DSA regulator), alleging Meta’s deceptive interface design keeps Facebook and Instagram users on profiling-based feeds and silently resets any non-profiling choice, breaching DSA Articles 38, 27(3) and 25. On 5 May 2026, a year on, Coimisiún na Meán confirmed it had opened a formal investigation into Meta over these dark-pattern allegations.
Executive summary
AI-generatedThis summary was generated by AI from the original report to make it easier to scan and cite. It is not a substitute for the source. Read the original above.
Four civil-society groups — EDRi, Dutch group Bits of Freedom, German legal NGO Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), and Convocation Research + Design — jointly filed this DSA complaint against Meta on behalf of an Irish Facebook/Instagram user, arguing Meta’s apps make a non-algorithmic feed hard to find and revert on every app open, allegedly violating Articles 38, 27(3) and 25 of the DSA. The complaint runs alongside parallel Dutch litigation, in which Bits of Freedom won a summary-proceedings ruling against Meta, cited by the complainants as corroborating evidence. In May 2026, Coimisiún na Meán announced a formal investigation into Meta on the same dark-pattern allegations — one of the more concrete regulator-level outcomes traceable to a coordinated multi-organisation EDRi-network DSA complaint to date.
Think this summary is wrong? Contact us.