Europeans risk being without social networks Facebook and Instagram from the summer after Ireland’s data regulator upheld its order to stop data leaking to the US, politico.eu reports.
The Data Protection Commission in Dublin has informed its European partners that it will ban Facebook owner Meta from sending data from Europe to the US. This ends the only legal way for the company to transfer large amounts of data to the US after years of fighting between the giant and European privacy activists.
The European Court of Justice invalidated in 2020 an EU-US data-sharing pact called the Privacy Shield over fears of American surveillance practices. The ruling also took steps to make it extremely difficult for Meta and other firms to transfer personal data through Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC). Ireland’s decision means Facebook is not allowed to use them.
Meta has warned several times that such a decision would shut down its services in Europe, including Facebook and Instagram.
“If a new legal framework for transatlantic data transfers emerges and we cannot continue with SCC or any other alternative ways to transfer data from Europe to the US, we will not be able to provide some of our most popular products such as Facebook and Instagram on the territory of Europe,” the company said in a statement submitted to the US National Security Commission in March.
The blocking order from Ireland must be confirmed by other European regulators, but it has certainly worried many businesses, which have been wondering for two years how to transfer data from Europe to the US after the court decision.
The EU and the US are currently negotiating new text in the agreement that would allow firms such as Meta to continue transferring data regardless of the Irish regulator’s order. An agreement was reached in March, but it is still being finalized and is unlikely to be signed before the end of the year.
A spokesman for the Irish regulator confirmed the decision had been sent to the rest of the EU, who had a month to respond.
“This is not a final decision and is part of the European authorities’ review of the conflict between the EU and the US. We hope that everything will be cleared up. We look forward to the new text, which will give us a chance to continue working and keep families connected , businesses and economies,” said a spokesperson for Meta.
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