CNN  —  European Union officials are investigating Meta over concerns the company hasn’t done enough to protect upcoming EU elections or to combat foreign disinformation on its platforms, setting up the possibility of steep fines or other penalties. The new probe is focused on Meta’s handling of advertising by scammers and foreign election meddlers, the European Commission said Monday, as well as a decision to shut down an analysis tool widely used by researchers and journalists to monitor Meta’s platforms. The investigation is the latest example of European regulators flexing their muscle against US tech giants following the passage of a flurry of new laws designed to rein them in. Officials said the investigation highlights apparent violations of Europe’s signature law governing online platforms, the Digital Services Act. If confirmed, the violations could lead to significant fines of up to 6% of Meta’s global revenue. As part of the probe, regulators said they are also looking into whether decisions by Meta to rank political content lower in users’ feeds may violate the DSA’s transparency rules. They added that Meta’s tools for users to report illegal content don’t appear to align with the DSA’s requirements, either. This photograph taken on April 11, 2024, in Paris, shows the logo of the Chinese social network application TikTok Lite displayed in Apple's App Store. The social network TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has launched a new application in France and Spain, called TikTok Lite, which allows its users to get paid by watching videos, it announced on April 10, 2024. Users aged 18 or older can "collect points by discovering new content or completing certain actions," the social network said. Kiran Ridley/AFP/Getty Images Related article TikTok suspends TikTok Lite rewards program in the EU amid regulatory scrutiny The investigation comes after Meta submitted required materials to the European Commission last fall outlining how it manages perceived risks linked to its products. Monday’s investigation, however, reflects EU skepticism that Meta has successfully managed those risks. A key aspect of the investigation targets Meta’s decision to sunset CrowdTangle, a once-popular tool used by civil society groups to track trending conversations on Facebook and Instagram. Without it, the European Commission said, users and researchers will have less visibility into what is happening on Meta services and could have a harder time detecting foreign election interference. Meta said earlier this year that CrowdTangle will no longer be available after August 14. Ending support for CrowdTangle without an “adequate replacement,” the European Commission said in a release, “could result in damage to civic discourse and electoral processes in relation to the mis- and disinformation tracking capabilities, identification of voter interference and suppression, and the overall real-time transparency provided to fact-checkers, journalists  and  other  relevant  electoral  stakeholders.” Meta didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the probe.