Lisbon, Jan. 23, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's National Communications Authority (Anacom) recently received a complaint about an alleged occurrence of discriminatory practices by the social network Instagram, an official source from the regulator told Lusa on Thursday, adding that it is also following developments on X.
Social networks have been in the spotlight in particular after Donald Trump won the US presidential elections, with several leading media outlets abandoning Elon Musk's social network X (formerly Twitter), with France's Le Monde among the latest to announcement its departure.
An official source at Anacom, asked if the regulator had received any complaints about possible manipulation of social media accounts, said that "to date, Anacom has not registered any complaints" that highlight or describe this specific situation.
"However, recently a complaint was submitted to this authority alleging discriminatory and non-transparent information practices on the part of the... Instagram platform," the source added.
Specifically, "the complainant alleges that when searching on the platform for the hashtag '#democrat', no results were shown, unlike the search for the hashtag '#republican'," it specified.
Some of Meta's Facebook and Instagram users were surprised to find themselves automatically following the accounts of President Donald Trump or Vice President JD Vance this week, as a result of already following official US accounts, reports the Associated Press news agency.
For its part, French communications regulator Arcom is to refer complaints lodged in France accusing billionaire Elon Musk of manipulating the recommendations algorithm on the X social network to the European Commission, according to a letter consulted by the Agence France Presse news agency.
"Anacom is monitoring developments related to the X online platform, co-operating with the European Commission and other competent authorities if requested to do so," said an official source at the Portuguese regulator.
Under the terms of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 [the Digital Services Regulation (DSA)], the European Commission has exclusive competence to supervise and enforce the obligations applicable to large online platform providers, including Meta, X, TikTok, among others, and very large search engines, with regard to systemic risk management.
"The European Commission also has the power to supervise and enforce the other obligations laid down in the aforementioned regulation in relation to the aforementioned providers, without prejudice to the role of the coordinator of the digital services of establishment of Meta and X, which in this case is Coimisiún na Meán (coordinator of the digital services of Ireland)," stressed the same official.
"For supervisory purposes, the European Commission may ask these providers for access to the algorithms, as well as explanations relating to them," the source recalled.
"Notwithstanding the above, the digital services coordinators of the various member states and the European Commission co-operate closely and provide each other with mutual assistance, with a view to the consistent and efficient application of the aforementioned regulation [so] it is possible that the European Commission will ask the digital services coordinators, namely Anacom, for a joint investigation, if appropriate and if there is a relevant complaint in Portugal,” it concluded.
ALU/ARO // ARO.
Lusa
