No, Meta has no real intention of shutting down Facebook and Instagram in Europe. The American group assures that the words of its leader Mark Zuckerberg have been distorted, the CEO contenting himself only with expressing uncertainty concerning the processing of data from European users.
This is the subject that has ignited Twitter in recent days. According to statements by Mark Zuckerberg, Meta intends to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe if it becomes impossible for the company to store user data from the Old Continent on its US servers.
Very quickly, many political figures and users reacted to this threat from the Palo Alto firm. The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire notably assured that Europe could very well do without Facebook and Instagram, arguing that “the lives of Europeans will only be better for it”. A position shared by Robert Habeck, German Ministry of the Economy, and by Cédric O, the French Secretary of State in charge of Digital.
No Threats, Only Worries from Meta
According to Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s word was misinterpretedwith the CEO merely highlighting the company’s concerns about the new European data protection regulations. “We have absolutely no desire or plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other companies, organizers and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the United States. United to operate global services”, assured Meta France to our colleagues from 20 minutes.
“Like 70 other European and American companies, we identify a commercial risk resulting from the uncertainty around international data transfers”, adds the company. In truth, Meta has been raising these questions for several years already, since in 2018, the company had previously been hostile to data-sharing agreements.
“International data transfers underpin the global economy and support many services fundamental to our daily lives. For many years, the legal framework supporting the transfer of data across the Atlantic has faced serious disruption. The Safe Harbor agreement was invalidated by the European Court of Justice in 2015. Last summer, the Privacy Shield, which was used by more than 5,000 companies on both sides of the Atlantic, was also invalidated by the Court of European justice”, denounces Markus Reinisch, vice-president of European public policy at Meta.
Source: TechRadar
