Will Facebook and Instagram users be charged a monthly subscription?

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, is preparing to impose monthly subscription fees on users of the Instagram mobile application in European Union countries, who do not want the company to share their digital activity in order to direct advertisements to them, according to what the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported. “.

The proposed subscription costs $14 per month, and aims to circumvent European Union rules that threaten to restrict the company's ability to display personalized ads to users without obtaining their consent.

The two newspapers quoted their sources as saying, “The giant American technology company is considering also charging $17 for using Facebook and Instagram together on computers.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta officials presented the plan to privacy regulators in Ireland and digital competition regulators in Brussels at meetings held last September.

The Financial Times said that the plan is likely to be put forward for implementation within weeks.

The Financial Times added: “The company has until the end of November to comply with a Luxembourg court decision issued this year, which found that Facebook “cannot justify” the use of personal data to target consumers with ads unless it obtains their consent.”

Social media platforms

Many social media platforms, which have made all their features available for free for years, have recently begun charging for some features, as their traditional advertising services come under pressure from privacy regulations and advertisers become more selective about their budgets.

Last month, reports revealed that Meta was considering paid versions of Instagram and Facebook targeting EU users, while users who have not paid for a subscription will continue to see ads on the service. The social media giant has already been fined in some regions. - including Norway - for failing to comply with privacy regulations and using personal information to display targeted ads to users.

Meta's turbulent experience with Europe

In December 2022, the European Commission (EC) opened an antitrust investigation into Meta's practices relating to its online classifieds business. The EC's investigation was aimed at investigating whether Meta had abused its market power by linking its Facebook Marketplace service with its social network Facebook.

Meta also threatened to leave the European Union completely if it was no longer able to transfer data related to European users to the United States, because the EU-US Privacy Shield Agreement, an agreement that allowed data transfer between the two regions, was invalidated by the European Court of Justice in July 2020.