Facebook toned down its warnings about a potential exit from Europe. It was after media from around the world published articles related to the intention of Meta Platforms to “close” their social networks in the Old World if the EU does not back down with new laws that prevent the sending of user data to the United States. .
In a release this Tuesday night, February 8, Facebook now clarifies that it does not want or threaten to leave Europe and that “Any report that implies we do is simply not true.”
He adds: “In the same way as 70 other companies in the European Union and the United States, we identified a business risk arising from the uncertainty surrounding international data transfers.”
In an extensive text signed by Markus Reinisch, vice president of Public Policy Europe at Meta, Mark Zuckerberg’s company says that “there have been reports in the press saying that we are threatening to leave Europe: this is not true.”
And he points out: “Like all publicly traded companies, we are required by law to disclose material risks to our investors.”
In the following paragraph, Meta makes the same point again: “We have absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe; of course not”.
Although he later explains: “But the simple reality is that Meta, like many other companies, depends on data transfers between the European Union and the United States to operate our global services.”
Why Meta can leave Europe: targeted advertising is the answer
It all started a little over a year ago, when the EU Justice annulled the so-called Privacy Shield used until then to transfer personal data from one continent to another. The sentence prevented the bigtech companies in the United States from sending information about their users to the other side of the Atlantic. Facebook appealed and since then there is a legal dispute that is about to be resolved in favor of the governments, hence the company’s reaction.
Facebook relies on the aggregate processing of data from all of its global users to deliver the targeted advertising service. Without the ability to ‘shuffle’ global information, the efficiency of ad targeting will be much lower: consequently, lower revenue.
“Companies need clear global rules to protect long-term transatlantic data flows and, like other companies in a wide range of industries, we are closely monitoring the potential impact to the millions of people and businesses that use our services.” Meta says.