Meta was fined roughly $400 million for breaking European Union data privacy laws for its treatment of children's data onInstagram, the latest in a series of steps by authorities in Europe and the US to crack down on what information is collected and shared by companies about young people online.
One of the largest fines to date under the General Data Protection Regulation, or G.D.P.R., was imposed on Ireland by the Data Protection Commission.
Policymakers are trying to protect children's data on social media, online video games and other internet services. A law was passed in California last week that would require online services to provide more protection for children. A similar law was passed in Britain.
Children's data is protected by European law. In 2020, Ireland's Data Protection Commission began investigating social media sites for allowing teenagers with business accounts to make public their email addresses and phone numbers, and for setting the accounts of children aged 13 to 17 to public by default.
More information about the decision will be released next week, according to a spokesman for the Irish Data Protection Commission. The fine was reported by Politico.
Daily business updates The latest coverage of business, markets and the economy, sent by email each weekday.Meta said it disagreed with the decision and would be appealing. The company said that the inquiry focused on settings that were updated over a year ago, and that it has since added more features to improve the safety of young users.
The company said that anyone under the age of 18 has their account set to private so that only people they know can see what they post.
Ireland against Meta has been fined more than any other country, reflecting regulators efforts to address the potentially harmful effects that social media and the internet have on young people.
The European policymakers adopted rules related to children. Companies are not allowed to use certain data to personalize advertising for people under 18 years old.
In Europe and the United States, there has been a lot of scrutiny on how the recommendation system affects body image and self esteem. Child protections on social media need to be strengthened.
Ireland is at the center of a number of battles. Because Meta uses Ireland as its European headquarters, the country is tasked with policing the company's compliance with G.D.P.R.
Irish regulators have been criticized for not being more aggressive in their enforcement of the data protection laws.
The cases take a long time. The regulators fined Meta over 200 million euros for violations. The company was fined 17 million euro for a data breach.
The country threatened to force Meta to stop moving data from European users to the United States. There is a dispute over a court decision that said data from Facebook andInstagram users in Europe was not protected from American spy agencies.
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