‘Parent company wants to take Facebook and Instagram offline in Europe due to new law’

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is threatening to take Facebook and Instagram offline due to a new law passed in the European Union. This stipulates that user data must be processed on a European server.

Meta: Facebook and Instagram offline?

A new law passed in the European Union requires companies offering their services in the European Union to process and store user data on European servers. Meta, the name of the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, among others, now processes the data on both American and European servers. According to the company, this is necessary for an optimal service; something Facebook also uses to optimize ad display and make everything work flawlessly.

Not transferring data between countries and regions could impact service and ad targeting, Meta said. The new EU legislation requires that data of European users is only kept on European servers. Previous data sharing agreements between the EU and the United States would not suffice.

Meta threatens to withdraw Instagram and Facebook in Europe if this arrangement is not adjusted. It is striking that WhatsApp is not mentioned in the story. However, it is quite possible that due to the lack of advertisements in WhatsApp, this will not have a major impact on the business results. After the announcement of this news from Meta, the company’s stock fell by 25 percent. Whether Facebook and Instagram will indeed go black remains to be seen. After all, the company still has plenty of money to make.