Meta must clarify measures against child sexual abuse by Dec. 22, EU says

By Foo Yun Chee and Charlotte Van Campenhout

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Meta Platforms was told by EU tech regulators on Friday to provide more details on measures taken to tackle child sexual abuse material on its photo and video sharing app Instagram by Dec. 22 or risk a formal investigation under new EU online content rules.

The European Commission in October sent a first request for information on measures taken to counter the spread of terrorist and violent content, and a second last month on measures to protect minors.

"Information is also requested about Instagram's recommender system and amplification of potentially harmful content," the European Commission said in a statement on its latest query.

The request for information was done under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), new tech rules requiring Big Tech to do more to police illegal and harmful content on their platforms.

Failure to comply with such requests can lead to a formal probe and even fines.

Chinese conglomerate ByteDance's TikTok and Elon Musk's X have also received similar requests for information.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee in Brussels and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)