Last year, the globalist World Economic Forum praised Facebook’s new name and venture ‘Meta’ the day after it was announced. It begs the question, are they working together, and have they been?
Zuckerberg claimed, after changing the company’s name to Meta, that “privacy and safety need to be built into the metaverse from day one.”
Now, the social media giant issued a warning in its annual report and threatened to shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe if it prevented transferring user data back to the U.S.
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs 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, which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations,” Facebook wrote in its report.
European lawmaker Axel Voss, one of the fathers of the General Data Protection Regulation, responded, “Meta cannot just blackmail the EU into giving up its data protection standards, leaving the EU would be their loss.”
I have always called for an alternative to the EU US #privacyshield to find a balanced agreement on data exchange + always called for #GDPR flexibility. However, #META cannot just blackmail the EU into giving up its data protection standards, leaving the EU would be their loss.
— Axel Voss MdEP (@AxelVossMdEP) February 7, 2022
Marketwatch reported:
Meta Platforms Inc. has said it is considering pulling the plug on Facebook and Instagram in Europe.
The threat centers on European regulators’ plans to craft new legislation that will dictate how EU citizens’ user data gets transferred across the Atlantic.
Meta’s warning sent its stock FB, which cratered to a 52-week low after reporting earnings fraught with danger last week, down 5% in trading Monday.
A Meta spokesperson said the company has no intention to withdraw from Europe, but merely raising concerns it has shared in previous filings.
“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 U.S. in order to operate global services,” the spokesperson told MarketWatch in an email message.
The issue has percolated since July 2020, when the European Court of Justice ruled the data transfer standard between the U.S. and EU does not adequately protect European citizens’ privacy.
Ireland’s Protection Commission sent Facebook a preliminary order to stop transferring user data from the EU to the U.S. in August 2020, according to a Wall Street Journal report. A final decision is expected in the first half of 2022.
