Meta is considering paid versions of Facebook and Instagram without advertising for users in the European Union, three people with knowledge of the company’s plans said, a response to regulatory scrutiny and a sign of how people experience technology in the United States and Europe may differ due to government policy.
Those who pay for Facebook and Instagram subscriptions won’t see ads in the apps, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are confidential. That could help Meta fend off privacy concerns and other scrutiny from EU regulators by giving users an alternative to the company’s ad-based services, which rely on analyzing people’s data, people said.
Meta will also continue to offer free versions of Facebook and Instagram with ads in the European Union, the people said. It’s unclear how much the paid versions of the apps will cost or when the company might launch them.
A Meta spokesman declined to comment.
For nearly 20 years, Meta’s core business has centered around offering free social networking services to users and selling advertising to companies that want to reach that audience. Providing a paid tier will be one of the most visible examples to date of how companies will have to redesign products to comply with data privacy rules and other government policies, especially in Europe.
In July, the European Union’s top court effectively banned Meta from aggregating data collected about users on its platforms — including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp — as well as from outside websites and apps. , unless it receives explicit consent from users. In January, the company was also fined 390 million euros by Irish regulators for forcing users to accept personalized ads as a condition of using Facebook.
The decisions stem from the 2018 enactment of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which is an important law to protect people’s online data.
Meta’s openness to creating paid subscriptions shows how those living in the European Union, which consists of 27 countries and about 450 million people, can begin to see different versions of its products. consumer technology due to new laws, regulations and court decisions.
In recent weeks, as a new EU law called the Digital Services Act came into effect to stem the flow of banned content online, TikTok and Instagram users in the region have also been able to block personal data from for use in building their social media feeds. Snapchat and Meta stopped marketers from targeting teenagers aged 13 to 17 in Europe with personalized ads.
Next year, another EU technology-focused law, the Digital Markets Act, will come into force. That is set to force big tech platforms to change certain business practices to encourage competition and will have far-reaching effects, with Apple hoping to allow users in the European Union to download App alternatives Store on iPhones and iPads for the first time.
“This shows that tech companies are complying with the EU’s digital regulations, suggesting that they remain focused on governments and not the other way around,” said Anu Bradford, a law professor at Columbia University and the -author of “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.”
Meta, which also owns Messenger, has faced particular scrutiny from EU regulators. In May, the bloc fined the Silicon Valley company €1.2 billion for violating its privacy laws by sending data on European citizens back to US servers for the purpose of improving its advertising technology. company. Meta appealed the decision.
Meta has been fined for other GDPR violations, including a €265 million fine for a data breach in 2021. Irish regulators also imposed fines of €225 million over violations in one case involving WhatsApp, and another €17 million in a data leak.
Some Meta insiders believe that giving users the option to opt out of an ad-based service while still having access to a paid version of Facebook or Instagram could ease the concerns of some European regulators, said two of the people. Even if few people choose the paid version, making such an option available could serve Meta’s interests in the region, they said.
Meta has not released its new Threads app, a rival to X, formerly known as Twitter, in Europe due to regulatory concerns.
Europe is the second most profitable region for Meta after North America. Susan Li, Meta’s chief financial officer, said in April that advertising in the European Union accounts for 10 percent of the company’s total business. Meta’s revenue reached nearly $117 billion last year.
Beyond its challenges in Europe, Meta is trying to revive its business after global economic tensions hampered ad sales growth. It is still pushing its vision of the immersive digital world of the metaverse, an expensive project championed by Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, that is still in its early days. And executives are focusing on developing artificial intelligence technologies and integrating them into more than just Meta products.