Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has renewed its threats to pull both social platforms from the European Union over privacy laws. EU regulators, however, are okay with that idea, saying that “life is very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook.”
As reported by Bloomberg, the United States and the European Union are stuck in negotiations over plans to “replace a transatlantic data transfer pact that thousands of companies relied on.” The was struck down by the EU Court of Justice in 2020 “over fears citizens’ data isn’t safe” once it’s transferred to the United States.
This has led the EU and United States to negotiate a new pact, and the lack of an agreement between the two sides could spell trouble for numerous companies, including Meta. In a new regulatory filing this month, Meta renewed previous threats that it would pull both Facebook and Instagram if an agreement isn’t reached.
The company says that it would “likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe.”
“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,” a Meta spokesman said in an emailed statement.
However, two top German and French politicians brushed off the threats with comments of their own, basically telling Meta to “go for it!”.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told reporters that he’s been without Facebook and Twitter for four years after his account was hacked, and that “life has been fantastic” since then. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added that he can “confirm life is very good with Facebook” and that “we would live very well without Facebook.”
Le Maire added that big tech companies must “understand that the European continent will resist and affirm its sovereignty.” Habeck added that the EU “is such a big internal market with so much economic power that if we act in unity we won’t be intimidated by something like this.”
