One of the most important penalties in the five years since the European Union (EU) announced the landmark privacy law was given to Facebook owner Meta. The EU fined Meta a record high for transferring its citizens’ Facebook data to the US. In addition to this penalty, the EU also ordered that data no longer be sent to the US.EU courts believe that such data transfers violate the privacy of EU citizens. This sentence, on the other hand, goes back to 2013 and Edward Snowden’s revelations about US mass surveillance programs.
Meta’s record $1.3 billion fine
Meta was fined a record €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in a landmark ruling against the social media company for violating European Union data protection rules, and ordered to stop the transfer of data collected from Facebook users in Europe to the United States.The penalty, announced by the Irish Data Protection Commission, is one of the most significant in the five years since the European Union enacted the landmark data privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The decision announced on Monday only applies to Facebook and not to Instagram and WhatsApp, which is also owned by Meta. Meta said it would appeal the decision and that there would be no immediate interruption to Facebook’s services in the European Union. With the decision, Meta was given a five-month period to adapt. The company’s appeal will entail a long legal process.
Meanwhile, the European Union and American officials are negotiating a data sharing agreement that would provide new legal protections for Meta to continue moving information about users between the US and Europe. A preliminary agreement for this was announced last year. But the EU’s data protection rules, as a result of national security laws and other regulations, are forcing companies to store data within the country where it was collected, rather than allowing it to be freely transported to data centers around the world.
Why was the punishment given?
The lawsuit against Meta stems from US policies that allow intelligence agencies to interfere with data from abroad, including digital correspondence. The decision by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) said that the current legal framework for data transfers to the US violates the GDPR, with Facebook “not addressing risks to the fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU users.Punishment is “unfair and unnecessary” according to Meta
This sentence, on the other hand, is based on the legal battle of Austrian lawyer Max Schrems, which goes back to Snowden’s disclosure of US surveillance programs. Schrems, who led the 2013 legal challenge that led to today’s ruling, said in a press release: “We are happy to see this verdict after ten years of litigation. Given that the maximum penalty is over 4 billion and that Meta knowingly broke the law to make a profit for ten years, the penalty It could have been much higher.” said.
“Failed to transfer data across borders, the internet risks splitting into national and regional silos, the global economy will be constrained, and citizens in different countries will not be able to access many of the shared services we come to rely on,” said Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead. said. Meta called the jazz “unfair and unnecessary” in its blog post. The company stressed that it is just one of “thousands” of companies using similar legal frameworks for data transfer.
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