It is the latest criticism of Meta’s practices after the U.S. tech giant was ordered to pay $18 billion under an agreement with U.S. states, announced on Wednesday, to resolve claims it designed its social media platforms to addict children

International News via Reuters:

Poland has asked the European Commission to impose a €250 million ($291.30 million) fine on Meta Platforms, its digital affairs minister said on Thursday, accusing the social media company of failing to adequately tackle fraudulent advertisements.

It is the latest criticism of Meta’s practices after the U.S. tech giant was ordered to pay $18 billion under an agreement with U.S. states, announced on Wednesday, to resolve claims it designed its social media platforms to addict children.

Poland accuses Meta of publishing fraudulent adverts and not taking them down when notified.

“We have hard evidence that the platform isn’t acting in the best interests of users, but rather in its own self-interest, which allows it to monetize deceptive advertising,” Polish digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski told a press conference.

In a letter dated August 26 to the European Commission, the minister cited tests conducted by CERT Polska, the national cybersecurity incident response team, which identified 122 advertisements classified as fraudulent.

Gawkowski said that in 106 cases, or 86.8% of reports, Meta had decided not to remove the advertisements. Only 10 ads were removed, while in six cases no response was provided.

“The time has passed for us to say ‘improve yourselves’, they say ‘we are improving’, but citizens still don’t feel it. Now the time has come for penalties,” Gawkowski said.

He also called on Meta to “immediately introduce effective tools to eliminate scams, false advertising, and the promotion of illegal applications.”

Meta, in a statement provided to Reuters, said it was making every effort to stop fraud on its platforms.

“Scammers are persistent criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics. That’s why we continue to invest heavily in technologies and partnerships – with industry and law enforcement – to find, remove, and ultimately stop scammers,” the statement said.

Gawkowski said that during the upcoming G20 summit he would seek to persuade European leaders to jointly speak out against what he described as Meta’s practices.

“This should be a joint initiative that will demonstrate that we have strong arguments and are determined to curb Meta’s actions,” he said.

Considering the scale of Meta’s operations and the damage caused to users in Poland, Gawkowski said a fine of €250 million “could constitute a real and deterrent enforcement measure.”

In 2024, Polish billionaire Rafal Brzoska sued Meta over fake advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, saying they featured his face and gave false information regarding his wife.

The Warsaw appellate court ruled in April this year that Meta was responsible for adverts it hosts on its platforms. Meta argued in court that it was not responsible for the fraudulent actions of its users.

($1 = 0.8582 euros)

Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz, Marek Strzelecki and Anna Koper; Editing by Louise Heavens and Susan Fenton

Political sparks will fly in the coming weeks, even before campaigning heats up for the two-round election on April 18 and May 2, as Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s government tries to survive the 2027 budget season in a hung parliament

International News via Reuters:

France faces a particularly perilous annual budget battle in the coming months as political parties jockey for position ahead of next spring’s presidential election while increasingly anxious investors look for evidence Paris can regain control of its public finances.

The stakes are high. France already has one of the highest deficits in the euro zone, the election frontrunners are hard-left and far-right candidates pushing expensive platforms, and governments have a long history of retreating from reforms in the face of street protests and political pressure.

Political sparks will fly in the coming weeks, even before campaigning heats up for the two-round election on April 18 and May 2, as Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s government tries to survive the 2027 budget season in a hung parliament.

Investors who spoke to Reuters said they are bracing for months of turbulence, with the budget fight and presidential race feeding off each other to unsettle markets already on edge.

The annual budget cycle has been a source of drama since 2024 legislative elections produced no majority, with two of Lecornu’s predecessors ousted over failed negotiations.

Political risks come at a challenging time globally, with borrowing costs from the U.S. to Japan recently hitting multi-decade highs on concern about ever-rising debt loads.

With the presidential race looming, there’s no shortage of flashpoints to question France’s ability to rein in its deficit just as the Treasury prepares to refinance huge COVID-era debts in the coming years.

Lecornu has urged lawmakers to pass a 2027 budget before the election, warning that they should not “add budgetary uncertainty to all the others” and that financial markets are also scrutinising the presidential campaign.

He has promised “big savings measures” when the budget bill comes before lawmakers in early October. Finance Minister Roland Lescure has floated freezing part of France’s pension spending next year to save money, although other details remain scarce.

BOND MARKET ANXIETY

Investors have spent the summer repricing French debt for volatility they expect ahead of the election while tension in the U.S. Treasuries market has added to the pain for France since U.S. bond moves typically spill over to other major bond markets.

The premium investors demand to hold French 10-year bonds over triple-A rated Germany has widened for three straight months, hitting the highest since late 2024 at around 88 basis points.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see those spreads going to 100 bps, and even from 100 basis points, there’s space for them to widen further,” said Kevin Thozet of French asset manager Carmignac, which manages roughly €44 billion ($51 billion).

Shares in Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas fell 3.3% to 4.3% on Thursday, among the weakest performers on the CAC 40 blue-chip index, as concerns about France’s finances weighed on lenders whose balance sheets can be affected by the health of government bonds.

Investor doubts about French politicians’ commitment to cutting the deficit have helped push French bond yields above Italy’s despite Rome’s heavier debt burden.

Credit rating agencies are also due to update their views in the coming weeks, starting on Friday with Fitch, which downgraded France’s credit score a year ago to a record-low A+.

Even if the government manages to trim its deficit, it will still need to borrow more in the next five years to refinance hundreds of billions of euros in bonds issued at rock-bottom rates during the pandemic.

The government is already struggling to deliver a modest reduction this year – to 5.0% of GDP from 5.1% last year – and parliamentary tensions make a more ambitious 2027 target a tough sell.

“I’m very pessimistic about the ability of either the current president or the next one to deliver the structural reforms needed to reduce the fiscal deficit,” said Christopher Dembik, senior investment adviser at Swiss private bank Pictet.

ELECTION UNCERTAINTY

Depending on which candidates end up running next year, in four out five scenarios France would see a runoff between hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon and far-right veteran Marine Le Pen, according to a Harris Toluna poll on Monday.

Both represent dramatic policy shifts, with Melenchon calling for debt held by the central bank to be cancelled and Le Pen advocating lowering the retirement age to 60 for some people.

The poll showed Le Pen winning comfortably against all rivals, though French presidential elections have a history of late surprises.

“There’s a lot of unknowns, but in general, it seems like they will all want to ease fiscal policy. There’s nobody coming in on a policy that we need to fix the budget deficit, we need to bring the debt down,” said David Zahn, head of European fixed income at Franklin Templeton, which manages roughly $1.8 trillion.

Reporting by Leigh Thomas in Paris and Stefano Rebaudo in Milan; additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe and Yoruk Bahceli in London; writing by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Hugh Lawson

Europe’s oldest living monarch and Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991, Harald was taken to hospital on August 17

International News via Reuters:

The health of Norway’s King Harald, 89, has deteriorated while in hospital and his condition is now “very serious”, the royal court said on Thursday.

Europe’s oldest living monarch and Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991, Harald was taken to hospital on August 17. The palace said he was being treated for a bacterial infection in his blood.

Crown Prince Haakon and Harald’s wife, Queen Sonja, have both cancelled all planned events, the palace said in a statement.

Members of Harald’s family, including the crown prince and the queen, were seen arriving at the Oslo University Hospital where the king is being treated, Norwegian media reported.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere on Thursday cancelled a trip to Germany due to the king’s condition and said in a statement to the media, “The whole nation is with us as we send warm thoughts to the king and the rest of the royal family.”

The speaker of Norway’s parliament, Masud Gharahkhani, broke off an official visit to Iceland and was heading back to Norway, while the Committee of Foreign Relations and Defence said its members would return home from South Korea.

The Lutheran Church of Norway’s College of Bishops, in Rome for a rare visit with the pope, announced it would return home as soon as possible, according to media reports.

In 2024, the king said he would reduce the number of official activities in which he takes part out of consideration for his age, but he ruled out abdication, saying his oath as king was for life.

Reporting by Louise Rasmussen; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Timothy Heritage and Hugh Lawson

Meta’s up to $18 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states over social media harm to teenagers has opened a new front in a global government fight to protect children and curb addiction to platforms such as Facebook and Instagram

International News via Reuters:

Meta’s move to restrict teenagers’ use of social media in the U.S. shows companies have tools to better protect young people online, Australian officials said on Thursday, as the country grapples with patchy enforcement of restrictions at home.

Meta’s up to $18 billion settlement with nearly all U.S. states over social media harm to teenagers has opened a new front in a global government fight to protect children and curb addiction to platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Governments around the world are trying to curb children’s access to harmful online content, including a world-first ban in Australia late last year on social media for children under 16.

Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells said social media companies “have the tools at their disposal to protect young people from their addictive features but have chosen not to use them”.

“That’s why Australia took world-leading action to create a minimum age for social media, and we are proud that more than 20 countries are joining us,” she said in an email to Reuters.

Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion over a decade and limit how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram under an agreement with nearly all U.S. states to resolve claims that it designed those platforms to addict children. Meta denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle.

The deal brings sweeping changes to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms in the United States, including imposing a default two-hour limit on its apps for users under the age of 18.

In South Korea, the media regulator said some of Meta’s measures should be applied to young users worldwide, rather than just in specific markets.

“Improvements to features that may encourage excessive use or addiction, such as algorithm-based content recommendations, disclosure of engagement metrics such as ‘likes,’ and push notifications designed to encourage users to log in, would ideally be applied to youth users worldwide,” it said.

Malaysia, which has barred those aged under 16 from registering accounts on social media platforms, said: “We welcome this latest decision in the U.S. courts as a positive sign that social media platforms must be held accountable for what takes place on their platforms.”

European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said it was in constant dialogue with Meta and the company “still has the possibility to offer commitments in the EU.”

EXECUTION ISSUES

Enforcement of similar restrictions in Australia has, however, been patchy so far.

Early evidence suggests the law has been undermined by weak age-verification systems, with multiple studies, including from Australia’s internet regulator, showing 80% of minors were still on social media months after the ban took effect in December. That prompted lawmakers to double the maximum fine and increase regulatory powers.

As governments worldwide seek social media curbs, Poland’s minister of digital affairs said he has asked the European Commission to impose a €250 million ($291 million) fine on Meta.

“I also call on Meta to immediately introduce effective tools to eliminate scams, false advertising, and the promotion of illegal applications,” Krzysztof Gawkowski posted on X.

In a statement provided to Reuters, Meta assured that it is making every effort to stop fraud on its platforms.

“Scammers are persistent criminals who use increasingly sophisticated tactics,” the statement said. “That’s why we continue to invest heavily in technologies and partnerships – with industry and law enforcement – to find, remove, and ultimately stop scammers.”

In Asia, countries including China, South Korea, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are also seeking tighter oversight of social media as well as curbs, including to block alleged scams, and in particular to protect children.

Philippine Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda said he hoped the Meta deal “will boost my talks with Meta this morning here in Singapore at their HQ”.

Aguda is meeting with Meta officials to discuss issues including online sexual abuse and exploitation of children and child sexual abuse material, financial scams targeting Filipinos and online grooming of minors.

Australian class-action law firm Shine Lawyers said it was in discussions with Mark Lanier, a lawyer who worked on the California action against Meta, about a potential similar action.

“For years, families have been asking whether enough has been done to protect children from platform features designed to maximise engagement,” said Shine Lawyers head of class actions Craig Allsopp.

“We are now examining whether similar legal issues arise in Australia, including whether Australian children and families may have claims connected to the design, operation and promotion of social media platforms. If Australian families have been affected, they deserve answers.”

Reporting by Byron Kaye in Sydney Karen Lema in Manila, Kyu-seok Shim in Seoul, Pawel Florkiewicz and Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw, Ashley Tang in Kuala Lumpur, Dominque Patton in Paris; Writing by Anne Marie Roantree; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Tomasz Janowski