EU regulators told Meta to disable infinite scroll and autoplay, citing dark UX patterns that drive addiction. Separately, designers face a taste test in the AI era, and tech job searches stretch to 18 months.
The European Commission told Meta to disable infinite scroll and autoplay in default settings, implement effective screen-time breaks, and retune its recommendation algorithm away from pure engagement maximisation. The findings, summarized by Anna-Maria Stantiuc for The Next Web, document dark UX patterns including scarcity, urgency, misdirection, social proof, sneaking, obstruction, and forced action – tactics the Commission said condition users toward addictive behavior.
Infinite scrolling, the Commission argued, robs users of the closure that pagination paradigms provide. The implicit pressure to keep scrolling constitutes a forced action. Time management tools already built into Meta's apps, the Commission said, are too easy to dismiss and "do not lead to a meaningful reduction and control of the usage of the service."
Meta disagreed. Spokesperson Ben Walters said the findings "don't accurately take into account the significant steps we've taken to protect teens." He pointed to Teen Accounts, launched on Instagram in 2024, which "automatically protect teens and put parents in control."
The Commission's feedback arrives as regulators across Europe tighten scrutiny on platform design. The EU's Digital Services Act, which took full effect in February 2024, requires large platforms to assess and mitigate systemic risks from their services, including addictive design.
Separately, Anne Quito explored the role of taste in design for the Adobe Design blog. At a time when AI makes creative artifacts easy to produce, she argued, professionals who understand the assignment, the brands, the clients, and the business requirements – the contextual pertinence of what is being built – become the curators of quality. "Taste is a sensibility born of experience," Quito wrote, "a synthesis of one's education, geography, politics, personal triumphs, and traumas."
A third piece from Stantiuc for The Next Web documented the prolonged job market challenges facing technology professionals. Searches that once took around four months are now stretching to twelve or even eighteen. "That is not a gap on a CV, it is a change of life circumstances," she wrote. "Savings, mortgages, and visas do not run on eighteen-month timelines." One AWS engineer described his January layoff as a blessing in disguise, citing return-to-office rules and pressure to use AI.
The job market outlook, several colleagues told me, is exponentially more difficult than during the Great Recession of 2009 and 2010. Amazon, Meta, and Oracle have been shedding people in droves, and the trend that started with Twitter's downsizing in 2022 has not reversed.
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