Meta may be forced to shutter Facebook, Instagram in EU
Meta says it may have to abandon the European Union.
The note was buried in the company’s annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Meta said that if officials on both sides of the Atlantic can’t reach an agreement on data transfers and warehousing, the company may have to pull its Facebook and Instagram platforms from Europe.
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted… 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 its 10-K filing. At this point, the statement is probably less of a threat and more an acknowledgment of the regulatory headwinds that the American company faces in the European Union. The SEC requires publicly traded companies to disclose issues that may affect profits and losses, and few things are more profitable for Facebook than user data.
