Meta pivots Facebook to full-screen video as EU transparency rules bite

The shift toward video-first interfaces signals a fundamental realignment of placement inventory, forcing advertisers to move from static feed assets to 9:16 video formats. This transition occurs under heavy regulatory scrutiny, as the EU’s Digital Services Act targets 'addictive' design features like infinite scroll and autoplay. For the broader ecosystem, the introduction of standardized AI attestation fields in major APIs suggests that platform-level disclosure is becoming a mandatory technical requirement rather than an editorial choice. Success in this fragmented market now depends on managing automated creative at scale while navigating strict transparency liabilities that can reach 6% of global turnover. Watch for the U.S. rollout of the full-screen interface as a bellwether for global feed-to-video conversion rates.

The regulatory pressure on Meta intensified in July 2026 when the European Commission preliminarily found the company in breach of the Digital Services Act (DSA). Per the European Commission, features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and highly personalized recommender systems were identified as contributing to 'addictive' design that risks the mental health of minors. This finding follows months of internal debate over 'autopilot' user engagement. If the non-compliance decision is finalized, Meta could face fines capped at 6% of its global annual turnover, roughly $12 billion based on 2025 revenue. Consequently, Meta’s video-forward test, which includes an opt-out mechanism for the classic feed, represents a strategic hedge against mandates to disable autoplay by default.

Simultaneously, the industry is racing toward the August 2, 2026, deadline for Article 50 of the EU AI Act. This regulation requires providers of AI systems to ensure synthetic content is marked in a machine-readable format. Per Trustible, the 'Digital Omnibus' negotiations in Brussels failed to produce a delay for these transparency obligations, leaving only a narrow grace period until December 2026 for systems already on the market. Google's addition of a synthetic content field to the DV360 API is a direct response to this requirement, shifting the compliance burden to advertisers who must now programmatically declare AI usage. Failure to comply with these marking rules carries penalties of up to 3% of global annual turnover.

In the U.S., the identity verification landscape is also shifting. On July 23, 2026, Google introduced selfie-video sign-ins for accounts, just one day before Meta announced its free 'Facebook Verified' badge. Both companies are responding to a surge in AI-generated fraudulent profiles. According to internal Meta documents published by Reuters in November 2025, the platform was handling roughly 22 billion organic scam attempts daily. While Meta's new badge aims to filter these on Marketplace and Dating, it notably excludes business Pages, keeping a clear separation between free human verification and the paid 'Meta Verified' tiers that businesses rely on for brand protection.