Instagram and Facebook may leave EU if data can’t be transferred, Meta says

The backstory:

• Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly Facebook, Inc., is under heavy scrutiny at the moment. Between privacy concerns and alleged monopolistic practices, the business is under fire across several countries and governments.

• Right now, European Union regulators are stuck in negotiations with the United States to find an alternative data transfer agreement relied on by thousands of companies after the EU Court of Justice removed the existing agreement over fears of citizen data being shipped to the US.

The development:

• With this, Meta has again threatened to pull Instagram and Facebook if they cannot continue shipping their data back to the US.

• In its annual report, published on Thursday, the company wrote that if it couldn’t rely on the new data transfer agreement in the region, it would “likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe.”

• This isn’t the first time the company has warned that an agreement like this would make it unable to operate parts of its business in Europe.

• “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,” wrote a Meta spokesman.

• This comes after Nick Clegg, the company’s head of global affairs, said at an event two years ago: “Let me also be absolutely crystal clear. We have absolutely no desire, no wish, no plans to withdraw our services from Europe. Why would we?”

You drive the stories at TMS. DM us which headline you want us to explain, or email us.