Europe to extend ban on targeted ads for Facebook and Instagram

Europe has been seriously scrutinizing large technology companies for several years and working to control the power of these companies. One of the areas that Europe has focused on is how companies use citizens’ data. Meta received a temporary ban from serving targeted ads to EU users in July, and now it appears the ban will be extended, reports TechRadar.

Facebook and Instagram still won’t receive targeted ads in Europe

For those of you who don’t know, targeted ads are personalized ads that an app serves to you based on an analysis of your online behavior and interests. Europe does not like this data collection and has been cracking down on it for some time now. In July this year, the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (DPA) temporarily banned targeted ads from Facebook and Instagram. Norway is not part of the European Union, but it is part of the European Economic Area. The ban was eventually going to expire, but is now set to be extended by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

The new ban will be in effect for longer and cover the entire European Economic Area and countries including Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

It is unclear how long this extension of the ban will last and whether the European Union will ever allow Facebook and Instagram to run targeted ads in the region. Meta is now offering a new subscription option for European users that will remove ads entirely on its two largest social media platforms. Perhaps this will be the way forward for Meta in Europe – relying on people wanting ad-free Meta platforms instead of targeting them with personalized ads.