# EU feeds: non-personalised options and the DSA addictive-design cases

> Do viewers in the EU see clips differently, and could the EU's cases against TikTok and Meta change my reach?

Source: https://fastclips.app/learn/eu-non-personalised-feeds-dsa · Updated 2026-10-04 · Published by FastClip (fastclips.app)

## Short answer

Since August 2023, EU law has required TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and other very large platforms to offer a feed that is not based on profiling, and in those feeds a clip page reaches mainly followers or viewers of already popular videos. On February 6, 2026 (TikTok) and July 10, 2026 (Meta), the European Commission issued preliminary findings that infinite scroll, autoplay and highly personalised recommenders breach the Digital Services Act. Preliminary findings are not final decisions: the companies can reply, and nothing has to change until the Commission adopts a decision.

## The rule behind it: Article 38 of the Digital Services Act

The **Digital Services Act (DSA)** is the EU law that regulates online platforms. Its strictest duties apply to **very large online platforms (VLOPs)**, the services the Commission designates because of their size. The Commission's 2026 cases cover three of them: TikTok, Meta's Instagram and Facebook, and X.

**Article 38** says that VLOPs that use recommender systems "shall provide at least one option for each of their recommender systems which is not based on profiling". **Profiling** here means using a person's data to predict their interests. A non-personalised feed therefore cannot pick videos from what you watched, liked or searched before.

The large platforms launched these options in August 2023, when the DSA duties began to apply to them. The options are available to users in the EU. They are a choice, not the default.

## What a non-personalised feed shows on TikTok and on Meta's apps

TikTok and Meta described their options when they launched them. The descriptions matter to clippers because they decide whether a non-follower can find your clip at all.

| Platform | When announced | What the non-personalised option shows | What it means for a clip page (our reading) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| TikTok | August 4, 2023 | For You and LIVE feeds show "popular videos from both the places where they live and around the world"; search shows popular content from the user's region and language; Following and Friends feeds are chronological | A new clip reaches these viewers only after it is already popular, or through followers |
| Facebook and Instagram | August 22, 2023 | Reels, Stories, Search and other parts can be viewed "not ranked by Meta"; Stories and Reels only from people the user follows, newest first; search results based only on the words entered | Non-followers using this option do not see your Reels in their feed; followers see them in time order |

We did not cover YouTube's and X's EU options in the sources for this article, so they are not in the table.

The pattern is the same on both platforms. A non-personalised feed removes the step that gives clip pages most of their views: the recommender showing a post from an unknown account to a stranger who might like it. In Meta's version, recommendations to non-followers are gone. In TikTok's version, they still happen, but only for videos that are already popular in a region.

## How many people use these feeds? No platform has said

We found no published figure for how many EU users switch to a non-personalised feed, on any platform.

The closest number is an estimate for another country. On September 10, 2026, ABC News in Australia reported that Instagram's head, Adam Mosseri, gave "an educated guess" that uptake of the chronological Following feed in Australia was "in the low single-digit percentages". He also said, without figures, that engagement fell by as much as 50 per cent in chronological feeds, and that "Anything that isn't the default just doesn't get used the majority of the time".

Those are statements from a platform that opposes making such feeds the default, and they are about Australia, not the EU. Still, nobody has published evidence that EU uptake is large. For now, the non-personalised options are unlikely to change reach for most clips. The risk is in what could become a default.

## The Netherlands: a court made Meta's choice stick

One national case has already changed how the option works, in one country.

On October 2, 2025, the preliminary relief judge of the Amsterdam District Court ruled in a case brought by the digital rights group Bits of Freedom against Meta. The court ordered Meta to make a user's choice of a non-profiling feed **persistent**, so that it stays set when the user moves to another section or closes and reopens the app. It also ordered the choice to be "directly and easily accessible" on the Instagram home page in the Android app, in Instagram Reels, and on Facebook's home page and Reels. The penalty was €100,000 a day, up to €5,000,000.

Enforcement was suspended until December 31, 2025. On March 10, 2026, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal upheld the ruling and raised the maximum penalty to €10 million. The judgment notes that much of the order has been implemented and that Meta has announced substantive proceedings: a full case on the merits, which is still to come.

For clippers, the effect is limited to users in the Netherlands who choose the non-profiling feed. Before the ruling, the app reset them to the ranked feed. Now their choice lasts, so for those users only followers see your Reels.

## The addictive-design cases: preliminary findings, not decisions

The bigger cases are at EU level. In both, the Commission says the platforms' design, including the personalised recommender, breaches the DSA. In both, the step taken so far is a **preliminary finding**: the Commission's provisional view, sent to the company so that it can defend itself. The Commission's own press releases say these findings do not prejudge the outcome.

|  | TikTok | Instagram and Facebook (Meta) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Proceedings opened | February 19, 2024 | May 16, 2024 |
| Preliminary findings | February 6, 2026 | July 10, 2026 |
| Features named | Infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and its "highly personalised recommender system" | Infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications and the "highly personalised recommender systems" |
| Changes the Commission says may be needed | Disabling infinite scroll over time, effective screen time breaks including at night, and "adapting its recommender system" | Disabling autoplay and infinite scroll by default, effective screen time breaks, and a recommender that is "less engagement-oriented" |
| Company response | TikTok called the findings "categorically false and entirely meritless" (Euronews, February 6, 2026) | Meta pointed to Teen Accounts and said it will "continue to engage constructively" (AP, July 10, 2026) |
| Status on October 4, 2026 | No final decision found | No final decision found |

**What happens next**, according to the Commission: each company can read the investigation file and reply in writing, and the European Board for Digital Services is consulted. Only if the Commission's views are "ultimately confirmed" can it adopt a **non-compliance decision**, which can carry a fine of up to 6% of the company's worldwide annual turnover. The Commission has given no date for either decision. Until then, the companies have no legal duty to change their feeds, and the changes listed above are examples, not orders.

## X: an open investigation into the Grok recommender

X is in a different position. On January 26, 2026, the Commission opened a new investigation into Grok on X and extended its December 2023 case on X's recommender systems to include "its recently announced switch to a Grok-based recommender system". The Commission said the opening of formal proceedings "does not prejudge its outcome". No preliminary findings on the recommender had been announced as of October 4, 2026, as far as we found.

X has already received one DSA decision. On December 5, 2025, the Commission fined X €120 million for its blue checkmark design, its advertising repository and researchers' access to data. That decision did not concern the feed or how clips are ranked.

## What could change for clips if the findings become decisions

This section is our inference from the remedies the Commission named. None of these changes has been ordered, and they would apply in the EU only.

- **Autoplay off by default:** viewers would have to start each video. The first frame and the cover text would need to earn the tap, not only the first seconds of sound.
- **Limits on infinite scroll or forced breaks:** fewer videos per session, so fewer chances for any one clip to be served. Competition for each slot would rise.
- **A less engagement-oriented recommender:** the Commission has not said what that would rank by. Clips built only for fast reactions could lose some of their advantage, but no one can say how much.
- **A non-personalised default:** if a final decision ever made a non-profiling feed the default, follower counts would matter far more in the EU than they do today. Nothing in the findings orders this.

Two points limit the risk. The process is slow: the TikTok case took two years to reach preliminary findings. And TikTok has said it will challenge its findings "through every means available".

## What a clipper should do now

1. Check where your viewers are. In TikTok, Instagram and YouTube analytics, look at the share of views from EU countries. If it is small, nothing here affects you yet.
2. If the EU share is large, build followers, not only views. In non-personalised feeds on Meta and in TikTok's Following feed, followers are the audience that still sees your posts.
3. Post when your EU followers are active. Chronological feeds show newest first, so timing matters more there than in a ranked feed. See [posting speed and freshness](https://fastclips.app/learn/posting-speed-and-freshness).
4. Make the first frame readable without sound, so a clip works if autoplay ever stops being the default.
5. Do not change your editing because of a rumour about a final decision. Check the Commission's DSA press releases for a non-compliance decision before you react.
6. Learn the viewer controls that already exist everywhere: [Instagram's Your Algorithm](https://fastclips.app/learn/instagram-your-algorithm) and [TikTok's Manage Topics and filters](https://fastclips.app/learn/tiktok-viewer-controls-manage-topics) let viewers narrow what they see today, in every country.

## Questions

### Is TikTok or Instagram illegal in the EU now?

No. The Commission's findings are preliminary. Both apps work normally, and the Commission has not adopted a non-compliance decision on addictive design against either company.

### Do views from EU users who use a non-personalised feed count for campaigns?

A view is a view on the platform's counter, whatever feed it came from. The non-personalised option changes how many EU users can find your clip, not how their views are counted.

### Can a viewer in the EU stay on a non-personalised feed permanently?

It depends on the app and the country. In the Netherlands, the court orders require Meta to keep the choice when users close and reopen Instagram or Facebook. Elsewhere, ABC News reported in September 2026 that Instagram's Following feed reverts to the ranked feed when the app is closed and reopened.

### How large could a fine be?

Up to 6% of the company's total worldwide annual turnover, if the Commission confirms its views in a non-compliance decision. X's €120 million fine in December 2025 was the first DSA non-compliance decision.

### Does this apply to YouTube Shorts?

The 2026 addictive-design findings were against TikTok and Meta, not YouTube. Article 38 applies to every designated very large platform that uses a recommender, but we did not check YouTube's EU option for this article.

### Will the same rules come to other countries?

Some governments are considering similar ideas. ABC News reported that Australia's government proposed in September 2026 to make platforms offer users a choice to opt out of algorithmic feeds. That is a proposal, not law.

## Sources

1. [European Commission: Commission preliminarily finds TikTok's addictive design in breach of the Digital Services Act (February 6, 2026)](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-preliminarily-finds-tiktoks-addictive-design-breach-digital-services-act)
2. [European Commission: Commission preliminarily finds the addictive design of Instagram and Facebook in breach of the Digital Services Act (July 10, 2026)](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-preliminarily-finds-addictive-design-instagram-and-facebook-breach-digital-services-act)
3. [European Commission: Commission investigates Grok and X's recommender systems (January 26, 2026)](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-investigates-grok-and-xs-recommender-systems-under-digital-services-act)
4. [European Commission: Commission fines X €120 million under the Digital Services Act (December 5, 2025)](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/commission-fines-x-eu120-million-under-digital-services-act)
5. [Digital Services Act, Article 38: Recommender systems (text)](https://www.eu-digital-services-act.com/Digital_Services_Act_Article_38.html)
6. [TikTok Newsroom: An update on fulfilling our commitments under the Digital Services Act (August 4, 2023)](https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-eu/fulfilling-commitments-dsa-update)
7. [Meta: New features and additional transparency measures as the Digital Services Act comes into effect (August 22, 2023)](https://about.fb.com/news/2023/08/new-features-and-additional-transparency-measures-as-the-digital-services-act-comes-into-effect/)
8. [Amsterdam Court of Appeal judgment, Meta Ireland v. Bits of Freedom (March 10, 2026, English translation)](https://www.bitsoffreedom.nl/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Court_of_Appeal_Amsterdam_%E2%80%93_Judgment__March_10_2026__%E2%80%93_Meta_Ireland_vs__Bits_of_Freedom.pdf)
9. [ABC News: Instagram chief Adam Mosseri warns against turning off algorithm (September 10, 2026)](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-10/instagram-ceo-adam-mosseri-algorithm-laws/107136992)
10. [Euronews: TikTok's addictive design breaches EU law, Commission says (February 6, 2026)](https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/02/06/tiktoks-addictive-design-breaches-eu-law-commission-says)
11. [AP via WTOP: EU demands Facebook and Instagram dismantle design features it calls addictive (July 10, 2026)](https://wtop.com/europe/2026/07/eu-demands-facebook-and-instagram-dismantle-design-features-it-calls-addictive-for-users/)