Facebook And Instagram Will Charge UK Users For Ad-Free Versions Of The Platforms
Meta has announced that Facebook and Instagram users in the United Kingdom will now be offered ad-free versions of the platforms if they pay a monthly fee up to £3.99 ($5.37) a month.
This announcement comes from Mark Zuckerberg as a response to regulatory warnings about personalized advertisements which are generated by using users’ data placed in an algorithm to produce targeted ads. The ad-free subscription service gives users the option to get out of targeted ads.
Reports indicate that web users will be charged £2.99 ($4.02) a month and mobile users will be charged £3.99 ($5.37) a month to scroll through Facebook and Instagram without seeing advertisements.
Additionally, if accounts are linked, users will only need to pay one monthly fee. In a statement, Meta stated:
“This will give people based in the UK the choice between continuing to use Facebook and Instagram for free with personalized ads, or subscribing to stop seeing ads.”
Users who opt not to pay the monthly fee will continue to see advertisements on their pages as usual. In their statement, Meta said the paid tier services will be rolled out throughout the upcoming weeks.
This new subscription model is very similar to one that already exists between Meta and the European Union. However, the EU deemed that policy in breach of the digital markets act by the European Commission. The digital markets act is a piece of legislation that was designed to crack down on the overwhelming power big tech holds.
The commission fined Meta €200 million ($235,125,380) this year after claims that the company could, and should, have released a free version of their sites that utilized less personal data including the users gender, age, and location, to be used to make targeted ads.
The Informational Commissioner’s Office is the UK’s data watchdog, and they stated that they support the move from Meta.
“This moves Meta away from targeting users with ads as part of the standard terms and conditions for using its Facebook and Instagram services, which we’ve been clear is not in line with UK law,” said an ICO spokesperson according to the Guardian.
The ICO stated this year that internet and Meta users should have the option to “opt out” of their personal data being used to create and push targeted ads. This statement came after Meta settled a court case with a UK citizen regarding targeted advertisements.
More specifically, Meta agreed in the court case to stop targeting Tanya O’Carroll, a human rights campaigner who alleged that the company breached UK data laws by neglecting to respect her right to demand that Facebook stop collecting her data for the sake of personalized ads.
After the lawsuit and settlement, Meta announced it was considering creating and implementing an ad-free subscription service to its social networks.
Gareth Oldale, a partner at UK law firm TLT, stated that the ICO’s support for the new subscription service from Meta exemplifies a divergence between the EU and UK.
“This position is certainly pro-business and illustrative of the UK government’s direction to regulators to support economic growth and development of the digital economy,” he said. “It does, however, mean that the divergence between the UK and the EU positions has grown a little wider.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
