The European Union levied a $1.3 billion privacy fine on Meta and commanded the company to stop transferring data to the United States. The fine was issued by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission on behalf of the EU. Meta claims the decision sets a dangerous precedent for many other companies transferring data between the two continents. The fine represents Europe’s continued fear of U.S. cybersnooping, partially kicked off by National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in 2013.

Meta announced the decision will not impact access for European customers but has previously threatened to revoke its services from EU users. The company stated that the absence of a legal guideline for data transfers makes providing trans-continental access difficult and risky. While the U.S. does not have a federal privacy law, the EU is highly strict regarding data privacy. The EU-U.S. ‘Privacy Shield’ was struck down in 2020 by EU courts for not being strict enough on U.S. government cybersnooping. Brussels and Washington reworded the agreement last year, but the new pact still awaits greater EU approval. Limiting international data sharing would be costly for Meta, as the company only has three data centers in Europe compared to seventeen in the United States. TikTok began a $1.5 billion endeavor to store American data on Oracle servers after the U.S. government raised similar concerns.

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https://apnews.com/article/meta-facebook-data-privacy-fine-europe-9aa912200226c3d53aa293dca8968f84