Facebook and Instagram May be Banned in Europe

After an Irish watchdog declared that Facebook and Instagram’s parent firm Meta could not share Europeans’ data with the US, the two platforms may be forced offline in Europe.

Both social media platforms would be unavailable to European users this summer if EU regulators approve, Politico reported last week.

Although Meta acknowledged the privacy regulator’s ruling in Ireland, it did not immediately react to a request for comment from The Independent.

“This draft decision, which is subject to review by European Data Protection Authorities, relates to a conflict of EU and US law which is in the process of being resolved,” a Meta spokesperson told Politico.

“We welcome the EU-US agreement for a new legal framework that will allow the continued transfer of data across borders, and we expect this framework will allow us to keep families, communities and economies connected.”

In Europe, Facebook has more than 300 million daily active users, or more than 10% of all users worldwide.

With more than a quarter of all users based there, Europe has an even bigger proportion of Instagram users than the rest of the world.

As Polarity Technologies has learned, other European privacy regulators have received the Irish Data Protection Commission’s blocking order, and they will comment on it over the course of the coming month.

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