Meta Threatens To Leave Europe Over Privacy Laws

Mashable reports:

Buried in Meta’s dense annual report for the Securities and Exchange Commission, filed Thursday, is a surprisingly stark sentence laying out a scenario in which The Company Formerly Known as Facebook might have to entirely stop operating Instagram and Facebook in Europe. Yep, no Instagram, no Facebook, for all Europeans.

At issue are European data regulations that prevent Meta from ingesting Europeans’ data on American servers. Basically, Meta says the ability to process user data in between countries is crucial for its business both operationally and for ad targeting.

European laws meant to protect user privacy by keeping users’ data within the EU’s jurisdiction have invalidated previous systems. So, because Meta has been unable to reach new data sharing agreements, it’s threatening to walk away from the continent with Facebook and Instagram.

Read the full article.

OK, do the U.S. now! https://t.co/awT2SZXZmG

— Mashable (@mashable) February 6, 2022

Meta has responded to my story that Mark Zuckerberg and his team are considering shutting down Facebook and Instagram across Europe if #Meta can not process Europeans’ data on US servers

Nick Clegg is not denying the report. On the contrary. https://t.co/HJCoZVItXO #Facebook #FB

— Michiel Willems (@NewsFromMichiel) February 6, 2022

Goodbye and good riddance?

Meta threatens to pull #Facebook & #Instagram out of the EU if they’re no longer able to harvest users’ data and send it to the US.

Could a European company develop a viable social media alternative that respects data privacy? https://t.co/zPK1my7HP2

— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) February 5, 2022