DodoFinance Breaking News Made For You!
More Facebook and more Instagram. We may soon be unable to share our lives within the EU via beautiful snapshots on social media platforms. Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms, is threatening to leave Europe if the group is no longer allowed to exchange European user data with the United States.
Meta warns in an annual report that it can no longer offer the services in the EU if the company is not allowed to exchange data with the United States. Facebook says stopping data transfers with the United States could have a devastating impact on the company. The company depends on the processing of user data in order to be able to offer targeted online advertisements.
Facebook has already threatened to leave
This isn’t the first time the company behind Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, among others, has threatened this. In 2020, Facebook was told by privacy regulators in Ireland that it could no longer use standard contractual clauses to comply with privacy rules when sending data to the United States.
Irish authorities had banned Facebook due to the European Court of Justice’s overturning of the data exchange regulation, the so-called Privacy Shield. According to the court, personal data is less well protected in the United States than in Europe.
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An investigation is currently still being carried out by the Irish data regulator. Meta is therefore still awaiting a final decision in the case. This decision could come in the first half of this year. In this context, the American company again warns that if a good solution is not found “we will probably not be able to offer some of our basic products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe”.
Complaint by an Austrian privacy activist
The case began several years ago with a complaint by Austrian privacy activist Maximilian Schrems about Facebook Ireland, the social media company’s European headquarters. Schrems had complained to the Irish Data Protection Authority about the transfer of personal data from Facebook Ireland to its parent company in the United States. He wonders if they are sufficiently protected in the United States.
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No more scrolling on Facebook and Insta: Meta plans to leave the EU