Meta will offer less personalized advertisements in Europe to satisfy regulators
Meta Platforms plans to offer Instagram and Facebook users in Europe the option to receive “less personalized ads,” the tech giant announced Tuesday, in an effort to address growing concerns from regulators.
The Menlo Park, California-based company said it is making these changes in response to demands from EU regulators.
In the coming weeks, people in the EU who use the company’s ad-supported social media platforms for free will be able to choose to see ads based on what Meta calls “context”: content a user sees during a particular session on the platforms.
These ads also target users based on age, gender and location, with some ads being unskippable for several seconds.
Meta also plans to reduce the price of ad-free subscriptions for European users by about 40 percent.
The move comes as European regulators step up efforts to curb the power of Big Tech and level the playing field for smaller companies, including through the landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA) that came into effect earlier this year.
“The new model that Meta is introducing is the sole responsibility of Meta and is not endorsed or agreed with the Commission. It is premature to speculate on the impact on ongoing non-compliance proceedings,” an EU spokesperson told Reuters.
“Our goal is to bring Meta to full and effective compliance with this matter as quickly as possible.”
Last month, the European Supreme Court ruled that Meta must restrict the use of personal data collected from Facebook for targeted advertising, backing privacy activist Max Schrems.
“While the solution remains to be assessed, we welcome the fact that a major platform is announcing that it will offer a new choice for free with less detailed profiling for advertising,” said Anu Talus, president of the EU’s privacy watchdog – the European Data Protection Authority. Board- said in a statement.
Meta’s plans to introduce less personalized advertising were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
