Meta Considers Pulling Out Of The EU Over Data Transfer Issues

(RTTNews) - Social media giant Meta Platforms Inc. (FB) has claimed that the differences in regulation between the United States and the European Union may result in the company retrieving its operations from the EU. The company claimed in its 10-k filing with the SEC that Facebook and Instagram will not remain operational in the EU if a transatlantic agreement cannot be reached..

"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." Meta said in the filing.

A Meta spokesperson told ArsTechnica, "We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organizations, and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services. We are closely monitoring the potential impact on our European operations as these developments progress."

The whole fiasco stems from Max Schrems challenging the European Union laws of privacy as not adequate and the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled in July 2020 that the American data regulation law does not provide a sufficient level of protection when it comes to mass surveillance of data. "The Irish Data Protection Commission has commenced an inquiry into Facebook controlled EU-US data transfers, and has suggested that SCCs cannot in practice be used for EU-US data transfers," Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of global affairs and communications had said in a blog post.

The ECJ ruling practically rendered the firm's ability to transfer personal data of the EU users to its base across the Atlantic useless. Meta and other US firms have been relying on the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR protocol to transfer data but the court had ruled that the US government could access the data collected by the firm without the consent of the particular user, making it one of the biggest problems in the system.