Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg "was very involved and knew exactly where we stand," EU commissioner Thierry Breton told reporters after talks at the social media giant's California headquarters.
"Now we expect the promising commitments I heard today to translate into results. I will be particularly vigilant on progress regarding disinformation and child protection," he said.
Breton said that more than 1,000 people were working on implementation at Meta of the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA) and that the company had agreed to carry out a "stress test" in July to ensure it was prepared for the new rules.
The test would take place at Meta's EU headquarters in Dublin, with video app TikTok also signed up to carry out the procedure with EU officials.
The EU commissioner made a two-day visit to San Francisco eight weeks before the DSA comes into full force for the world's biggest platforms, including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, as well as TikTok and Twitter.
The DSA is one of the most ambitious legislations on controlling online content since the advent of social media, putting major obligations on how platforms deal with the free flow of speech.
To meet the new rules, Twitter, Meta, TikTok and other platforms will have to invest heavily on building compliance teams at a time when big tech companies have been cutting staff, including their content moderation workforce.
In a tweet following the talks, Meta's head of public policy Nick Clegg welcomed a "constructive discussion" with the EU.
Meta, with platforms that reach billions of users worldwide, continues to come under fire for its failings in taking down toxic content.
A report earlier this month in the Wall Street Journal found that Instagram is the main platform used by pedophile networks to promote and sell content showing child sexual abuse
The meeting with Zuckerberg followed a similar meeting with Elon Musk at Twitter headquarters, where the commissioner also welcomed the efforts made ahead of the DSA's entry into force.
But Breton told Musk and his new CEO Linda Yaccarino that the company will have to have adequate resources in place to meet the new rules, or risk being in infraction with EU authorities.
Major violations of DSA rules could see tech giants slapped with fines as high as six percent of annual turnover and, if violations persist, be banned outright from the EU as a last resort measure.
Malaysia threatens legal action against Meta
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) June 23, 2023 -
Malaysia threatened to take legal action against Meta on Friday, accusing the tech giant of failing to remove "undesirable" content from Facebook.
The country's communications regulator said the platform had been plagued by a "significant volume" of harmful posts on issues including race, royalty, religion and online gambling.
It said Meta had failed to scrub such content despite repeated requests and raised the possibility of legal action against the US firm.
"As there has been no sufficient cooperation from Meta, the commission has no option but to take definitive steps or legal action," the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement.
The body did not specify the exact legal avenue it might pursue.
Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil could not be reached for comment on Friday but echoed the regulator's statement in a tweet.
"This is due to Meta's refusal to cooperate in taking down harmful content," Fahmi said.
Meta could not immediately be contacted by AFP.
The warning comes days after Malaysian authorities met with representatives from messaging platform Telegram as part of efforts to tackle cybercrime.
Fahmi had claimed last month that the company was refusing to cooperate on the subject.
But the minister said after their Monday meeting that Telegram had agreed to work with the government.
Race, religion and royalty are often seen as taboo topics in Muslim-majority Malaysia, with harsh penalties sometimes meted out to people posting content online deemed unacceptable.
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