Cédric O, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, does not care that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger may disappear from Europe. Mirroring Bruno Le Maire, the politician says he is convinced that European data legislation must be enforced. Meta, parent company of Facebook and others, quickly assured that it had no intention of leaving the European continent.
Unrealistic threats from Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, provoked amused reactions from European authorities. During a meeting with his German counterpart, Bruno the MayorMinister of Economy and Finance of France, said that the European continent could very well do without the services of Meta.
Shortly after Bruno Le Maire’s tackle, Cedric O, the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs of the French Republic, also reacted to Meta’s warnings with a smile. During a speech devoted to Europe’s digital sovereigntythe former joint adviser to the President of the Republic hinted that the old continent does not need Facebook, Instagram and others.
Cédric O is not afraid of Meta
“I thus hear that Facebook could withdraw its services from the European Union because of the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. So what ?”asks Cédric O. The person in charge refers to a decree of the European Court of Justice of 2020. This decision no longer allows Meta to store the personal data of users residing in Europe on American servers. So far, an agreement between the United States and the EU gave this freedom to the Silicon Valley giant.
“I am going to say it here very clearly: our only compass, the one that guides the action of this government, the action of the European authorities, is to ensure respect for the collective, democratic choices of European citizens, including data protection”continues the politician, ensuring that he is ready to do anything to enforce the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation which came into force in 2018.
At the same time, Meta let it be known that it had no not really intending to withdraw Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from the European market. A spokesperson first assured that the company had “no plans to withdraw from Europe”. To reassure Internet users, Meta posted a blog post explaining its position. This post is simply titled “Meta absolutely does not threaten to leave Europe”. Markus Reinisch, vice-president at Meta Europe points out that “we have absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe; of course we don’t. But the simple reality is that Meta, like many other companies, organizations and services, relies on EU-US data transfers to operate our global services”.
