At the beginning of the week, Meta caused a lot of excitement and amusement: Because the social media group threatened to shut down its platforms in Europe if you don’t get a longer data protection leash. But the threat came to nothing and now nobody wants to know anything about it.
A few days ago it became known that Meta wrote in its latest annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that its business basis is increasingly being threatened in Europe because various privacy and data protection aspects are making life more and more difficult for the company. Meta specifically writes in this report that it will not be able to “offer a number of our key products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe”.
Europe was not necessarily shocked by this quasi-threat, but shrugged its shoulders and said that travelers should not be stopped. Politicians and large parts of the user community said “And bye!” Meta and his boss Mark Zuckerberg were told that Facebook and Co. would not really be missed. There was also a lot of ridicule on social media, and the memes and GIFs were correspondingly clear.
Meta’s own PR goal
That’s why Meta has long since realized that it was an own goal and is now trying to row back. A blog post titled “Meta is by no means threatening to leave Europe*” tries to explain that this was not a threat – despite clear wording in the report to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (see below).
Meta’s action course remains volatile. / © TradingView
Meta writes that they have only identified business risks arising from the “uncertainty associated with international data transfers”. In the article, Meta explains why this data exchange is so important. It wasn’t a threat.
Therefore, for the sake of the PR spin, the English and anything but ambiguous original passage from the SEC letter (PDF*):
“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.”
*external links