The parent company of FaceBook, Instagram, and WhatsApp Meta has been fined €1.2 billion which roughly translated to $1.3 billion by the European Union.
According to the EU, the fine has been imposed as Meta was transferring the personal data of EU citizens to Facebook Servers situated in the USA.
The European data regulation board stated that,
The EDPB found that Meta IE’s infringement is very serious since it concerns transfers that are systematic, repetitive and continuous. Facebook has millions of users in Europe, so the volume of personal data transferred is massive. The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organisations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences.
According to EU, Meta didn’t had any privacy safeguards in place while transferring the data from EU servers to US servers. This activity violates the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) agreement.
As the fine is quite humongous, Meta instantly made a statement about the fine, saying it will file an appeal.
Nick Clegg, Meta president of global affairs, and Jennifer Newstead, chief legal officer at the company, stated that,
“We are appealing these decisions and will immediately seek a stay with the courts who can pause the implementation deadlines, given the harm that these orders would cause, including to the millions of people who use Facebook every day,”
This is still a developing story so we will keep you updated as soon as something new happens.