Facebook’s parent company Meta said on Monday that it had no plans to pull its services from Europe, as the possibility has been raised amid an ongoing spat over the transfer of European data to the United States.
Data is at the heart of the advertising business, which generates almost billions of dollars in revenue for the company, and the framework governing the transfer of information from the continent is now in limbo.
“We have absolutely no intention or plan to exit Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta and many other businesses, organisations and services rely on data transfers between the EU and the US to operate global services,” the company said in a statement.
In July 2020, the crucial Privacy Shield online data arrangement between Europe and the United States was invalidated in a decision by the European Union’s top court that left big tech companies across the Atlantic in legal uncertainty.
Meta also noted in Thursday’s filing with U.S. market regulators that the basis it uses for data transfers is also in legal and regulatory jeopardy.
“Without the adoption of a new transatlantic data transfer framework…we may not be able to offer some of our most important products and services in Europe, including Facebook and Instagram,” Meta wrote in its Securities and Exchange Commission filing .
European authorities and the U.S. government are still discussing ways to solve the problem.
The social media giant recently suffered its worst market value slump on record after disappointing quarterly results raised questions about its future.
Its iconic Facebook platform saw a small drop in daily user numbers around the world through the end of 2021, the first such decline for a platform that is relentlessly focused on growth.
The company’s focus on adding users was at the heart of last year’s whistleblower scandal, in which leaked internal documents backed up news reports that the company prioritized growth over safety.
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