Meta is opposed to a percentage fee that it must pay to Europe to have itself checked whether it is following the rules of the game. Not every major player has to pay the same.
The European Union is asking Meta (and other major companies covered by the Digital Services Act, DSA) to hand over 0.05 percent of its global profits. With this amount, Europe wants to cover the costs it incurs to check whether the company behind Facebook and Instagram complies with the rules of the DSA.
This contribution applies to twenty massive platforms, including Apple and Google. The amount is based on the number of active users and whether the company was profitable the year before.
According to Politico, Meta does not agree with how those contributions are calculated. The company points out that a larger company with a more severe impact may pay less if it is currently making a loss. The company believes that this is disproportionate. Meta lost for years as it built its empire but became a smooth-running engine that generated billions in profits even in bad quarters.
The Digital Services Act must hold huge companies to several rules, including what may appear online. This concerns disinformation and advertisements aimed at children or personalized based on race, religion or political opinion.
That is also necessary in the case of Meta. For example, the company knew how damaging Instagram was to the self-image of young girls but kept that information to itself. Whistleblowers also revealed last year that the company did too little to combat this.
Meta also hardly holds anything back when it comes to advertisements. Disinformation or advertisements leading to scam sites are commonplace daily, something the company seems to do nothing about despite many promises.
