Instagram counted 297 million active users in the EU in the first half of 2026 against 264 million for Facebook, according to Meta’s latest transparency reports under the Digital Services Act. Facebook’s EU user base has been roughly flat for several reporting periods and fell in some, while Instagram has kept climbing. Threads sits at 41 million in the EU, against more than 500 million monthly users worldwide. Meta has also cut its EU moderation headcount to roughly 5,900 from about 7,700 in March, in line with its stated plan to shift the work to AI systems. User reports of terror content on Instagram rose almost 38% from the second half of 2025 and reports of child sexual exploitation material rose about 22%, while every major report category on Facebook fell by double digits.
