Instagram growth continues to outpace Facebook in EU

Meta released its latest EU DSA reporting numbers, which showed that Instagram grew at a much faster rate than Facebook in the first half of 2026, in terms of active users.

Under the EU Digital Services Act, all large online platforms are required to share biannual reports on user counts, as well as content moderation efforts.

Meta’s latest reports showed that in the first half of 2026, Instagram had 297 million active users in the EU, versus Facebook’s 264 million actives.

As the data shows, Facebook usage in the EU has been relatively flat for some time, and even declined in some previous reporting periods. Instagram, however, has continued to steadily rise, and is on track to surpass 300 million users in the region sometime next year.

The data suggests that for brands that want to maximize reach and resonance in the EU, Instagram is more popular, and continues to gain popularity, though both platforms have significant reach in the region.

However, Facebook has lost some of its relevance in the EU, which could be indicative of a broader usage shift.

Threads, meanwhile, now has 41 million users in the EU, a small part of its more than 500 million total monthly actives.

In terms of moderation staff, Meta has reported a reduction in EU moderation staff, from about 7,700 EU moderators in March to about 5,900 moderation staff as of this report.

That could be part of the company’s broader push to incorporate more artificial intelligence-powered assistance tools. Meta previously outlined plans to replace human moderation staff with AI-powered systems.

Meta also reported an almost 38% rise in reports of terror-related content on Instagram versus the second half of 2025, while it also reported about 22% more reports of child sexual exploitation content in the same period.

On Facebook, Meta reported double-digit reductions from H2 2025 and H1 2026 in reports of hate speech (down about 19%), spam (down about 27%), bullying and harassment (down about 30%) and child exploitation material (down about 17%). However, these declines could also be further indicators of the platform’s overall usage drops in the region.

The overall disclosure data confirms that Facebook has lost footing in terms of how much time users spend on the platform, with other platforms including Instagram and TikTok now superseding it.

These numbers are worth noting in terms of wider trends, and it’s worth considering how this applies to larger digital marketing approaches.