Image source: Visual China
BEIJING, February 8 (TMTPOST) — Social media giant Meta might shut down Facebook and Instagram in the European Union (EU) member states due to the continuous struggles for EU regulators and Meta to reach an agreement on data sharing, the company said in its annual report.
Regulators in the EU are drafting new legislation that will decide how EU citizens’ user data is transferred across the Atlantic. Meta said in its annual report released last Thursday that it might have to close the operation of Facebook and Instagram in Europe if the EU and the United States could not reach an agreement on a new transatlantic data transfer framework.
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs (standard contractual clauses) or rely upon other alternative means of data transfers from Europe to the United States, we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe,” the company warned.
EU lawmakers and politicians have fired back at Meta’s warning. European lawmaker Axel Voss said on Twitter that Meta cannot blackmail the EU into giving up its data protection standards and that leaving the EU will be Meta’s loss.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister of the Economy and Finance, also responded that Meta must comply with local data transfer law in the EU if it wishes to operate in Europe and that the EU does not fear Meta’s exit from the European market as the regional bloc’s data sovereignty is involved.
The European Court of Justice ruled in July 2020 that the data transfer standard between the EU and the U.S. does not adequately protect European citizens’ privacy. The court ruling invalidated the United States and the EU’s Privacy Shield Agreement. Multinational companies then rely on SCCs to send EU citizens’ data across the Atlantic. If SCCs could no longer be used as the legal foundation for data transfer across the Atlantic, firms that need to share data between the EU and the United States will be significantly impacted.
Meta’s share price slumped by 0.5% pre-trading on Tuesday.
关键词： English
营业执照公示信息