We already told you how it is not being the best month for Meta. In recent weeks, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has been forced to put an end to its ambitions in the world of cryptocurrencies and what is worse, it has reported the first quarter of its history in which it has lost users.
The latter, despite the great financial results it has presented in the last quarter, has also earned it a hard blow on the stock market, with a 25% drop in shares. However, the headaches for the company do not end here.
As Mashable has revealed today, “buried” in the results presentation report, there is an entire heading that points to the possibility that the company that is forced to stop offer services such as Facebook or Instagram in Europe.
A problem called GDPR
Despite the fact that since the EU has become “serious” with the processing of personal data, Facebook has significantly improved in managing the privacy of its users, at this time there are still key aspects of the GDPR to which the American multinational keeps saying “no thanks”.
The most important of these is undoubtedly the obligation to process the data of European citizens on servers that are within the limits of the EU, preventing these data from “traveling” later to data centers located in the United States.
In this sense, the company assures that the ability to process the data of its users between countries is crucial for its business, both from an operational point of view and charging everything, for its ability to promote ads.
In recent years the company has tried to negotiate an agreement with the EU so that in some way, it can continue processing the information of EU citizens in the United States, but in the face of negotiations that seem to be stalled, the multinational has threatened to leave the continent and stop offering Facebook and Instagram in Europe.
In this sense, in the statement, those responsible for Meta assure that “if we cannot transfer data between and in the countries and regions in which we operate, or if the exchange of data between our products and services is restricted, it could affect our ability to provide our services, how we provide them, or our ability to target ads, so if we don’t reach new agreements in 2022, we likely won’t be able to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram ».
Next, what remains the most important social media platform on the planet urges regulators to adopt “a proportionate and pragmatic approach to minimize disruption to the thousands of companies that, like Facebook, have been using mechanisms that transfer data in a safe way”.
Despite the threat of the multinational, it is not to be expected that finally Facebook will disappear from the screens of European citizens. Especially since neither Meta is interested in abandoning a business that provides billions of euros, nor is the EU interested in all the companies that currently invest in Facebook or Instagram as part of their marketing campaigns losing this window of exposure. for your products.
In some way, and before the end of the year, an agreement will be reached in which what remains to be seen is to what extent it will harm us as users.
