Meta is in trouble again and potentially having to cut a big cheque as a result. This time they got nailed by the EU for the following reasons:
A top European Union privacy regulator ruled that Meta Platforms Inc. can’t use its contracts with Facebook and Instagram users to justify sending them ads based on their online activity, delivering one of the bloc’s biggest blows yet to the digital advertising industry.
Meta, the parent of Instagram and Facebook, said it disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal it. The ruling was announced Wednesday by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission.
The agency imposed fines of 390 million euros ($414 million) on Meta, saying that the company violated EU privacy laws by saying such ads are necessary to execute contracts with users.
Litigation could take years, but if the decisions are upheld, they could mean that Meta will have to allow users to opt out of ads that are based on how individual users interact with its own apps–something that could hurt one of its core businesses.
So why would Meta appeal this? Well it’s because ads are its business and anything that interferes with that is a 9-1-1 type of emergency. So they really have no choice. But this is the latest EU fine that Meta has been served with. You have to wonder how many more of these that Meta will get hit with before they alter how they do business. If they can actually alter how they do business.
BREAKING: Trump Gets His Facebook And Instagram Account Back
Posted in Commentary with tags Facebook on January 25, 2023 by itnerdFirst Donald Trump got his Twitter account back. And now Facebook and Instagram are doing the same thing:
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said Trump’s accounts will be reinstated “in the coming weeks” and come with “new guardrails in place to deter repeat offenses.”
Those guardrails will include “heightened penalties for repeat offenses — penalties which will apply to other public figures whose accounts are reinstated from suspensions related to civil unrest under our updated protocol. In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Clegg said on the company’s website.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It will be interesting to see if whatever “guardrails” Meta has will actually moderate Trump’s behaviour. And that assumes that his agreement with his own social media platform Truth Social doesn’t get in the way of this. This might be interesting to watch and see how Trump plays this.
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