Facebook shutting down in Europe?

[butterscotch]

Facebook had a really bad day on the market a couple days ago. The largest market drop in its history. Meta also agreed to pay a $2M fine to the UK over regulation on its purchase of Giphy.

According to this article, Meta is considering pulling out of Europe. Meta is Facebook’s parent company. It also owns Instagram which could also be pulled.

This is an early report. I haven’t seen any others by reputable sources, but this article cites The Guardian. I couldn’t find an article by The Guardian on this.

If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers, Facebook and Instagram may be shut down across Europe, the social media giants’ owner reportedly warned in its annual report.

Mark Zuckerberg and team consider shutting down Facebook and Instagram in...

[PixieKnuckles]

Facebook being there or not, means nothing to me, but I do feel sorry (if it comes to it), for the people who use it to communicate with the families, and businesses who use it to market and sell things.

It sounds like he is having a tantrum though because he can’t get what he wants, and given the enormous loss of revenue from the advertising alone, I would imagine he won’t go through with it anyway.

[d00d]

I quit FB ten years ago so won’t miss it.

I am signed up to Insta, and look in there occasionally. But could live without it.

Bye Zucker.

[AliceWonderland]

[AnnieS]

I’m not sure how they can shut down in Europe without shutting down all round. The whole point is that people around the world can get in touch.

[Bread]

Facebook are trying to get governments to overturn data privacy policies such as GDPR.

This is big tech at its worst. They want your data and they want to use it all over the world.

[Bruce]

Young people seem to be deserting FB in droves they don’t want to use the same platform as their parents and grandparents. They are all off to Tik Toc it seems

My youngest son shut his account a year ago.

It looks like we will be the only demographic left and there is no money in advertising to us.

FB tried bullying the Australian government a while back but were forced to back down.

[butterscotch]

lol Facebook’s threat appears to be backfiring as European leaders speak positively about a possible shutdown.

European leaders have embraced Meta’s indirect warning to shut down its Facebook and Instagram operations across Europe if the social media giant is no longer able to process Europeans’ data on US servers.

Last night, Germany’s new economy minister Robert Habeck told reporters during a meeting in Paris: “After I was hacked I have lived without Facebook and Twitter for four years and life has been fantastic.

Speaking alongside his German colleague, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire added: “I can confirm that life would be very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook.”

Facebook responds that it has no plans to withdraw from Europe, but that the business model relies on data transfers to function.

When approached by City A.M., a spokesperson for Meta said: “We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organisations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services.”

“Like other companies, we have followed European rules and rely on Standard Contractual Clauses, and appropriate data safeguards, to operate a global service,” he added.

“Fundamentally, businesses need clear, global rules to protect transatlantic data flows over the long term”

Meta's threat to close down Facebook and Instagram in Europe backfires as EU...

[OldGreyFox]

Facebook and twitter have done a lot of damage to the establishment over the years with protests and civil disobedience being co-ordinated on these conduits. I wouldn’t be surprised if some terrorism has also been organised on social media. Personally I enjoy reading peoples opinions on twitter, you get a flavour of what the average person really thinks, and also news items and world affairs that don’t appear on the MSM. You do need to sort stuff out though, what is and what isn’t proper news. It would certainly benefit the establishment to remove this thorn in their side. I think we should have always seen this coming, and to make it look like its someone elses fault is the perfect solution.

Facebook is too high maintenance for me, and I jacked it in years ago, but each to their own. Conversing with a load of geriatrics on the forum suits me down to the ground…Being as I am one…

[butterscotch]

@Bruce

Young people seem to be deserting FB in droves they don’t want to use the same platform as their parents and grandparents. They are all off to Tik Toc it seems

For the young people who just want to get away from oldsters, that makes sense.

But I’ve been baffled by the people who leave Facebook because of the invasion of privacy who then go to Tik Tok. Both are monitoring its members.

But Tik Tok is based in China, so there’s no regulation on what it can do with the information.

Here’s a study that says that Tik Tok and youtube share your data the most of social media. youtube discloses where it goes. Tik Tok doesn’t.

TikTok shares your data more than any other social media app — and it's...

[PixieKnuckles]

I bet Facebook didn’t expect such positive encouragement, heh! Pity they will back down (maybe), it would be nice to see a world not so obsessed with it.

TikTok has been banned in India though, I thought that was interesting.