After informing Brussels that it will prevent the Meta group from sending user data to the United States, the Irish privacy authority throws a stone into the pond which could lead to the closure of Facebook and Instagram in Europe.
More than ever, Facebook and Instagram are under threat of closure within the European Union. To protect the privacy of its citizens, the Irish regulator confirmed on Thursday its desire to stop the transfer of data from the company Meta (Facebook) to the United States.
The Meta group more than ever threatened in Europe
This case began in 2020, a period during which the equivalent of the Irish CNIL wanted to prohibit Facebook from transferring the data of European users to servers located in the United States. Indeed, the GDPR regulations prohibit the transfer of personal data of European Union nationals to third countries if the level of protection of the recipient country is not equivalent to that of the EU.
This is precisely the case of the United States, whose government surveillance is often singled out, in particular via the Safe Harbor and Privacy Shield systems which allowed the transfer of data across the Atlantic. Both devices were invalidated in 2015 and 2020 by Brussels.
Since then, another device has been put in place to allow American companies to transfer personal data to the United States, called “standard contractual clauses” (SCC), but this does not solve the problem of American surveillance posed by these tools. . For these reasons, the Irish Data Protection Authority also wishes to terminate this for Meta Group in Ireland.
Meta alert on a possible shutdown of Facebook and Instagram in Europe
This is not the first time that Meta has mentioned the closure of Facebook and Instagram on the old continent. Last March, Mark Zuckerberg’s company warned of the consequences of such decisions for the continuity of its services in the European Union:
“If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs or other alternative means of transferring data from Europe to the United States , we will probably not be able to offer a number of our most important products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe”.
The Irish blocking order, which has also been sent to other privacy regulators in Europe, will first need to be confirmed by the European Regulators Group (EDPB). If this decision is confirmed, many American companies using the “standard contractual clauses” to transfer data across the Atlantic will be affected.
But the EU and the United States are negotiating a new text to regulate the transfer of data between the two continents, including in Ireland. A preliminary agreement was reached last March, but the legal details have so far stalled. For its part, the Meta group welcomes the implementation of these new agreements:
“We welcome the agreement between the EU and the United States to establish a new legal framework that will allow the continuous transfer of data across borders. We hope this framework will allow us to keep families, communities and economies connected. »
Source :
Politico