You may have heard something about it, but is it actually true? Is there a chance our favourite social channels — Facebook and Instagram — could disappear from Europe for good? It seems almost unreal, but nothing could be further from the truth. Meta, the parent company of these two social media giants, is having a hard time these days and is genuinely threatening to pull its services out of Europe. Help! What exactly can we expect? And above all: how accurate is everything you're hearing? Let's find out.
So, what's happening?
Europe wants to protect you and your personal data. It does that through the strict privacy legislation you're probably familiar with by now.
In 2018 we all learned a brand new abbreviation: GDPR. We all know the term now, but what does it actually mean? GDPR stands for General Data Protection Regulation. In short: a giant list of rules companies have to comply with when processing and passing on user data.
Say hello to the Privacy Shield. That term may be a little less familiar. What does it involve? It's essentially an agreement between Europe and the United States listing all the do's and don'ts around passing EU citizens' data to the United States. Heavy stuff.
We've briefly summarised the most important rules for you:
- Data minimisation: using personal data? Then it has to be limited to the data genuinely necessary for your specific purpose.
- Transparency: not following the rules as a company? Bad news, because that gets made public for everyone.
- Strict conditions on data transfer: if you hold certain data, it may only be used for the purposes the person concerned agreed to.
Erm, okay. So far so good… but what exactly is the problem? Glad you asked. American government agencies have access to the personal data passed from Europe to the United States. And you'll never guess: that isn't in line with the rules of our beloved GDPR legislation. The Court of Justice of the European Union therefore decided to declare the Privacy Shield invalid.
What can we expect?
So what exactly is going to happen? This is what it all revolves around: in future it will probably no longer be possible for Meta to target adverts at the right audience because of a lack of personal data. Social media ads are an enormous source of income for both Facebook and Instagram, and if that concept stops working because of privacy legislation… well, you can guess, that's a big financial slap in the face for Meta.
In other words: Meta will have to find a new way to process and store data legally so it can keep advertising.
So, the big question: will Facebook and Instagram ever be pulled out of Europe? And would Meta really be willing to leave so many people out in the cold?
This official statement from Meta should provide more clarity:
"We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, like many other businesses, organisations and services, relies on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate global services."
Conclusion
We don't know. What we do know is that Meta will do everything it can to find loopholes to stay present in Europe and keep billions of users happy every day. And that includes us. Of course it remains to be seen how the situation develops. GDPR or not, for now we're simply carrying on with what we love most: creating kick-ass content. Because let's be honest, every company likes having their socials on point, right?
Curious how we could get to work on your social channels too? Our Hippos are happy to share their knowledge and expertise with you.
