WASHINGTON, DC — Facebook's parent firm
Meta said
Monday it has no plans to pull its services from Europe, after raising the
possibility amid an ongoing row over transferring European data to the US.
اضافة اعلان
Data is central to the ad business that generates nearly all
of the company's billion of dollars in revenue, and frameworks that have
overseen the transfer of information from the continent are now in limbo.
"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 US in
order to operate global services," the firm said in a statement.
The crucial "Privacy Shield" online data
arrangement between Europe and the US was invalidated in July 2020 in a top EU
court decision that threw transatlantic big tech into legal uncertainty.
Meta also noted in a filing Thursday to
US market regulators
that the bases it uses for data transfer are also in legal and regulatory
jeopardy.
"If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not
adopted, ... we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant
products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe," Meta
wrote in its US Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
European authorities and the US government are still talking
through ways to resolve the issue.
The social media giant recently saw its worst-ever plunge in
market value, after disappointing quarterly results that raised questions about
its future.
Its signature Facebook platform saw a small dip in daily
users globally at the end of 2021, the first such decline for a platform
relentlessly focused on growth.
The company's preoccupation with adding users was central to
the whistleblower scandal last year, in which leaked internal documents
underpinned press reports saying the company prioritized growth over safety.
Read more Business
.jpg)
.jpg)
