Mark Zuckerberg threatens to pull Facebook and Instagram from Europe
MARK Zuckerberg is threatening to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe over regulations aimed at hampering the apps' data harvesting.
CityAM reports that Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, buried the warning in a report for the Securities and Exchange Commission filed last week.
In it, the California tech behemoth bemoaned EU rules that will prevent it from digesting Europeans' data on American servers.
Without the ability to transfer, store and process that data across the Atlantic, Meta said it may be forced to shut down core services in Europe.
Should the company make the unlikely decision to follow through with the threat, it could see Brits banned from accessing Facebook and Instagram.
Meta said in its report that, unless European rules around data are softened, the company will “probably” no longer be able to offer its "most significant products and services," including Facebook and Instagram, in the EU.
The key issue for Meta is an issue surrounding transatlantic data transfers.
Currently, Meta processes its data across the US and Europe. The company says that this is crucial to the way that its business operates.
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Under new rules, Meta and other tech giants could be forced to process that data on servers based in Europe.
The regulations are aimed at protecting Europeans' privacy by ensuring their data is not processed beyond the boundaries of the continent.
Meta is demanding that it is allowed to continue using the transatlantic data transfer framework called Privacy Shield.
That's the legal basis the company used to carry out data transfers until it was invalidated in July 2020 by new laws designed to protect Europeans' data.
Meta clarifies that it thinks it will be able to reach new agreements in 2022.
However, it says that if new agreements cannot be reached, it may be forced to pull services from Europe.
The chances that the company will follow through with the threat, however, are slim – as Europe is one of its biggest and most profitable markets.
The comments most likely amount to the company throwing its weight around in the face of regulation that will impede its data collection, which is its primary model for generating revenue.
Meta's Nick Clegg said: "We urge regulators to adopt a proportionate and pragmatic approach to minimise disruption to the many thousands of businesses who, like Facebook, have been relying on these mechanisms in good faith to transfer data in a safe and secure way."
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said: "We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organisations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services.
"Like other companies, we have followed European rules and rely on Standard Contractual Clauses, and appropriate data safeguards, to operate a global service.
"Fundamentally, businesses need clear, global rules to protect transatlantic data flows over the long term.
"And like more than 70 other companies across a wide range of industries, we are closely monitoring the potential impact on our European operations as these developments progress."
Other companies have also warned of the impact of these EU rules, including Siemens, SAP, Telefonica Deutschland, Allianz and GSK.
It comes after a tough few weeks for the beleaguered tech giant.
It emerged last week that Facebook had lost users for the first time in its 18-year history, hinting that its status as the world's biggest social media app is under threat.
The platform's parent company, Meta, on Wednesday delivered a gloomy mix of a sharper-than-expected drop in profit, a decrease in users and threats to its ad business that plunged shares some 22 per cent in after-hours trading.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg blamed the meteoric rise of rival service TikTok on Facebook's apparent stagnation.
"People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly," Zuckerberg said during an earnings call yesterday, according to the Washington Post.
Already jittery markets have punished pandemic-era darlings including Netflix for disappointing results.
Meta got a taste of that after its $10.3billion quarterly profit and daily user-growth fell short of expectations.
Yet the signature Facebook platform also reported losing roughly one million daily users globally between the last two quarters of 2021.
That's a tiny number on an app with nearly two billion daily users, but a potentially worrying signal of stagnation.
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