The well-known social media Facebook and Instagram will become subscription-based in Cyprus and Greece, offering an optional option of €9.99 per month.
This new option will be offered in all European countries and Meta is obliged to do so due to the rules of the European Union.
Going into details, the new membership of Facebook and Instagram is not Meta Verified which offers blue ticks and other benefits. Instead, it's a new package that completely removes all ads on both social networks.
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Those who decide to sign up via a browser will pay €9.99 per month, while if someone signs up via the iOS or Android app, the subscription will rise to €12.99 per month due to the fees imposed by Apple and Google. The subscription will initially also support linked accounts, i.e. the connection that someone can make between their Facebook and Instagram. However, from 1 March 2024 each linked account will require an additional €6 (for PC subscription) or an additional €8 (for iOS and Android).
At this point it should be made clear: Both Facebook and Instagram will continue to be accessible for free in the European Union, but with targeted ads.
Mark Zuckerberg's company has long been in trouble with the European Union. For example, trying to comply with European legislation, it has not yet made its new Threads social network available in European countries. At the same time, the company was fined 1.3 billion dollars by the Irish Data Protection Commission, because it transferred the data of European users to the US, thus violating the GDPR.
Therefore, this new contribution aims to address the European Union's concerns about Meta's ad targeting and data collection practices. By giving users a choice between paying for the service that removes ad targeting or using the service for free but consenting to data collection practices, Meta believes it will have more clearly and conclusively met the privacy requirements that have been set by European laws such as the recent Digital Markets Act and the GDPR
The official announcement emphasizes that Meta believes in "ad-supported internet" and clarifies that it is forced to add the new subscription option due to Union legislation. You can find the Meta blog post by clicking here.
Source: unboxholics.com
