The European Union has asked Meta, the operator of Facebook and Instagram, for more information on its plans to update its election and civic discourse monitoring functionalities.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, made the request to the US firm on Friday.
The EU has been expressing concerns after Meta discontinued a function that monitors social media posts on its platforms and checks for misinformation.
Meta’s CrowdTangle function was dropped on August 14. It had been used for fact-checking during the European Parliament elections in June and on other occasions.
The Commission is concerned the replacement tool might not be as effective as CrowdTangle as a measure against fake information.
It says Meta has obligations to give researchers access to data that is publicly available on its platforms under the regional body’s Digital Services Act.
Meta must provide the requested information by September 6. Failure to comply could lead to the imposition of periodic penalty payments.
A Meta spokesperson said the firm has built “new, more comprehensive tools for researchers” than CrowdTangle.