Privacy Concerns And Restrictions Loom Over Meta’s Rush to Rival Twitter With Threads

As Meta gears up to compete against Twitter with its own microblogging platform, Threads, upcoming data regulations have stalled its release in the EU markets.

According to experts, Threads is only starting to face the series of privacy battles it would have to face in its quest to topple Twitter.

Meta launched its new microblogging platform on Wednesday, marking the beginning of the company's direct competition against Twitter. However, despite being launched in over a hundred countries, Threads is yet to enter major EU markets.

What's Holding up Threads From Being Launched in the EU?

Meta is likely worried that the upcoming GDPR laws will pose a roadblock for Threads, which gained a lot of attention over its intrusive data collection policy. According to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, complexities with complying with some of the laws coming into effect next year" are keeping Meta's microblogging platform from being launched in the EU.

Threads earned millions of users the very first day it went live, which does look promising.

Mosseri's statement might be referring to the antitrust-oriented Digital Markets Act that's supposed to come into effect in 2024.

However, the app is also expected to face issues due to the violation of consumer privacy regulations. Its way of collecting almost every kind of personal user information has given rise to a major privacy debate in recent days.

As per Meta's disclosure on the Apple app store, Threads will be collecting a variety of sensitive information such as sexual orientation, racial and ethnic data, political affiliations, religious beliefs, etc.

Hence, it's no surprise that the app hasn't entered the EU markets - it would be in clear violation of the GDPR.

PrivacyHawk founder and CEO Aaron Mendes, too, agreed that Meta is likely wary of the risk of releasing a product that very clearly violates General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines".

However, he also added that this doesn't necessarily mean Threads won't flourish in the future, pointing out that the company was known for rolling out new things slowly.

According to Mendes, users don't necessarily need to freak out about Threads' data collection policy. He pointed out that even the biggest data collectors allow users to choose the kind of information they'd be willing to divulge.

Can Threads Eventually Make It to the EU?

The current situation raises questions about whether Meta can keep up with the GDPR. Even those who find Meta's approach to privacy too intrusive often agree that the GDPR laws are unnecessarily restrictive.

While the EU may have good intentions behind enacting stringent data privacy laws, they make it extremely difficult for global brands to centralize their data.

Mendes says that privacy laws in the EU make it extremely difficult to roll out new products due to how they use and export data outside the borders of the EU.

He highlighted how Meta was slapped with a $1.3 billion fine for transferring the data of EU users to its US servers, even though it was necessary for the service to operate.

Having a separate copy of the product that stays siloed in the EU and doesn't export any data outside EU borders isn't very viable either. According to Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, the UK's right to data portability law is a better solution.

It remains to be seen if Meta will eventually be able to release Threads in the EU, but for the moment, it doesn't seem to have any plans to do so.

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