EU regulators are working on a ban that will stop Facebook from transferring European user data using a legal tool. The ban is being led by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, has not commented on the matter. The Irish Data Protection Commission and the European Commission have also not responded to requests for comment.
Sources say that Meta is set to receive a record European Union privacy fine because of its failure to comply with a warning from a top EU court. The fine will be higher than the previous record of €746 million ($821.20 million) given to Amazon.com Inc.
The EU regulators are concerned that U.S. intelligence agencies could access the information transferred by Facebook. Therefore, they want to stop the legal tool used by Facebook to transfer European user data. The Irish DPC has been given one month to make an order blocking Facebook’s transatlantic data flows, and the ban could be in place by mid-May.
In 2020, Europe’s highest court ruled that an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement was invalid because of surveillance concerns. Meta has warned that an order to ban the mechanism it uses to transfer data from Europe to the United States could force it to suspend Facebook services in Europe.
The article is from a syndicated news agency feed and was last updated on May 18, 2023.
