Facebook and Instagram May Introduce Subscription-Based Services in Europe to Comply with EU Privacy Regulations
According to The New York Times, Meta is considering introducing a paid subscription option for Instagram and Facebook in Europe. This move aims to comply with European Union (EU) regulations that have impacted Meta’s profitable data-collection practices. In April, Meta revealed that advertising in the EU accounted for 10 percent of its overall revenue.
The move would be the first time Meta has deviated from its standard model of a single, free platform supported by advertising (and the associated data collection). NYT says the company will continue to offer free ad-supported versions of Facebook and Instagram in the EU. It’s not known when the company will launch ad-free tiers or how much they would cost.
Company “insiders” cited by the NYT believe that offering a paid ad-free option could “assuage the concerns of some European regulators,” even though few people use it. An optional tier “could serve Meta’s interests in the region,” they added.
An ad-free option for European users would be one of the most significant differences between consumer technology in the EU and the US. Meta and other social platforms have had to adapt after GDPR and other regulations came into force. The EU fined Meta 1.2 billion euros in May for transferring the data of EU citizens to US servers. In addition, the company was fined 265 million euros in 2022 because it did not prevent millions of Facebook users’ mobile phone numbers (and other information) from being scraped and published online.
“This shows that tech companies are complying with the EU’s digital regulations, suggesting that they stay with governments and not the other way around,” Columbia University law professor Anu Bradford told The New York Times.
