Meta’s maneuvers to soften Brussels
The formula for subscriptions to Facebook and Instagram, the two social networks in Meta's portfolio, had caused more than one European authority to grumble. To avoid fines, Zuckerberg's group launches a counter-proposal but does not give up once again on making public its frustration with community rules
Attacked on multiple fronts by the EU, which invites it both to respect the DMA – the package of rules for a digital market that is the same for all as the physical one – and to give the right value to its users' data, Meta seems to want to try the of the dialogue with a sudden reformulation of subscriptions to Facebook and Ig, i.e. Facebook and Instagram the main social networks in one's portfolio, even if, as we will see shortly, it does not hide the frustration of having to deal with more stringent rules than those of the Asian and American markets.
NEWS ON FB AND IG SUBSCRIPTIONS
According to what was announced by Meta itself, Mark Zuckerberg 's company intends to meet European demands by offering its users an unprecedented opportunity to use Facebook and Instagram for free with less personalized advertising.
What "less personalized" means is currently impossible to say. But it is certainly the first crack in the two-headed system developed by Menlo Park and implemented exactly one year ago which provides two options: paying subscriptions to Facebook and Ig or continuing to use them for free but accepting profiling for the proposal of tailored advertising banners, on the basis of the interests expressed during navigation.
ALL THE GRIANS FROM THE EU
It is known that while the Data Protection Commission (DPC), the privacy authority that acts on behalf of the EU, was complaining because the formula of having Facebook and Instagram for free does not allow users to understand that in reality they are already paying handsomely the connection to the two social networks giving Menlo Park its data, at the beginning of the summer the European Commission had informed the company led by Mark Zuckerberg that its new model for managing personal data could violate the Digital Markets Act .
According to the Commission, this model – known as pay or consent – does not provide users with “a less personalized but equivalent version of Meta's social networks”. Article 5 of the Digital Markets Act in fact requires the so-called gatekeepers – that is, the large technology companies that control access to digital markets, such as Alphabet and Apple – to ask for users' consent to combine their personal data among the services offered from their main platform and other services; if a user refuses to provide consent, he or she must have access to less personalized but equivalent alternatives to the services in question. Furthermore, gatekeepers cannot make the use of their services or some features subject to user consent.
META'S COUNTERPROPOSAL
Hence Meta's counter-offer on subscriptions to Facebook and Ig: in addition to a significant reduction in the price of the subscription for the advertising-free versions of Facebook and Instagram in the European Union, with the new price destined to drop to 5.99 euros on the web and at 7.99 euros if purchased via iOS and Android (due to store commissions) compared to the current 9.99 euros and 12.99 euros, the imminent arrival, above all, of a "free" version – which is not free , considering that you pay with profiling and this constitutes Meta's business model – even with less personalized Adv.
MORE THAN SUBSCRIPTIONS, META FLY THANKS TO ADVERTISING
An obscure formula which, as we said, will have to be explained, especially to the EU. For the moment, sifting through Meta's economic data, however, we have confirmation that the Menlo Park giant is certainly not standing thanks to subscriptions: Mark Zuckerberg's software house has in fact closed the third quarter with revenues increasing by 19% to 40 .58 billion dollars and a net profit up 35% to 15.68 billion.
Overall, advertising revenue totaled $39.9 billion for the quarter, an 18.7% increase from a year earlier. Advertising represented 98.3% of total revenues in the period under consideration.
In short, as the European privacy protection authority says, if advertising is the entirety of Meta's business model, it is difficult to argue in its relationship with users that the only way to have "free" use of Facebook and Instagram is profiling, because it is clear that at that precise moment American society is being given exactly what it wants: the ok to profile its users.
META'S IMPATIENCE WITH EU RULES
Only a few months ago Meta had exploded against the EU by announcing that the community rules for the protection of privacy prevent any collection of data without authorization to such an extent as to make it impossible for the US Group to continue with the experimentation of its generative artificial intelligence on this side of the Ocean.
The same intolerance to EU rules can also be felt in the latest note issued by Meta: “Despite our efforts to satisfy European regulations, we have continued – they complain from Menlo Park – to receive additional requests from regulators that go beyond what was expected by law." For this reason, they add, “in response to this feedback and to continue to provide our services free of charge to as many citizens as possible in the EU, we are launching an additional option for European users”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/le-manovrette-di-meta-per-ammorbidire-bruxelles/ on Wed, 13 Nov 2024 09:15:00 +0000.