Will Facebook pull out of Europe?

Facebook has indicated that it will withdraw from the EU if the bloc's data protection rules impede its business. The background to this is an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission against the company. The EU's General Data Protection Regulations prohibit the transfer of personal data to non-EU countries. Commentators don't believe Facebook's threat should be taken too seriously.

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Público (PT) /

Off you go then!

In Público's view the withdrawal of Facebook from Europe would not be a major loss:

“In the case of Facebook, the danger is that the company controls dominant services such as Facebook and Instagram, social networks that are used daily by millions of citizens. Facebook believes that leaving these millions of citizens without its service will be enough to force the European authorities to back down. And this is where Europe has a great opportunity: not only not to give in to blackmail, but also to wish Facebook a good journey.”

Ria Nowosti (RU) /

The EU is not trying to take over Zuckerberg's assets

Facebook's threat to withdraw from the EU market will not have any consequences, believes Ria Novosti:

“It's unlikely that the threat to withdraw Facebook and Instagram from the EU market will have an impact on the European stance. It's more likely that these US-based companies will comply with the demands of European regulators. In this context the situation is reminiscent of Trump's approach, who justified the move to take over the Chinese network Tiktok with the need to protect US users' data from falling into the hands of Chinese state structures. But unlike the EU, Washington is explicitly demanding a change of ownership rather than just the relocation of certain servers.”

Krytyka Polityczna (PL) /

Rules for data transfer needed

Krytyka Polityczna calls for a serious discussion instead of childish threats:

“It was clear from the outset that Mark Zuckerberg's company cannot get into a big fight with the EU because it would harm its own business interests. Facebook has 400 million users in the EU. Its apps and tools are used by 25 million companies registered in the EU. ... If no rules exist for data transfer from the EU to the US, then they really need to be made. But the best thing would be to include them in the ongoing global discussion about how to protect our data from illegal use. Otherwise, there will only be an exchange of populist arguments such as 'we demand the suspension of the transfer' or 'we will leave the EU', even though it's clear to everyone that neither of these scenarios will actually occur.”