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Facebook And Instagram Will Charge UK Users For Ad-Free Versions Of The Platforms 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.”

Facebook And Apple Feuding Over Privacy Changes That Threaten Targeted Advertisements 

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Facebook has spent its week pushing public relations efforts meant to attack Apple due to the fact that the company is planning on making iOS data privacy changes that would make it harder for advertisers to track users search history and therefore deliver extremely specific targeted ads on platforms like Facebook. 

Critics of Facebook were quick to point out that it’s interesting they care so much about targeted advertisements, and believe they’re just showing how integral that is to their actual core business. 

Facebook has put out advertisements in several national newspapers, such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, in which the platform slams Apple’s upcoming privacy changes. Facebook has claimed in the ads that the changes would be “devastating” to millions of smaller businesses that use Facebook to get their companies name out there more. 

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Facebook has been pushing their new small business initiative, SpeakUpForSmall, recently in which the platform encourages local businesses to “speak their mind” and share what personalized advertisements have meant to the success of their business. However, many were quick to point out that Facebook is likely more upset about these changes due to the fact that the platform makes a majority of its annual revenue from advertising on the site. 

Apple announced these changes at their Worldwide Developer Conference back in June, but they won’t be implemented until early 2021. During the event Apple discussed how users would now be shown a prompt on their devices that would ask for their permission to allow tracking from advertisers, and a bold warning that their information would be used specifically for targeted advertisements. 

Apple has defended this move multiple times by claiming that “online privacy is a fundamental human right,” a right that Facebook has definitely been criticized on throughout the past decade. Now, Facebook is attempting to position themselves as a large supporter of small businesses with these new advertisements, which claim that the platform is “standing up for small businesses everywhere.” 

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The advertisements continue: “Many in the small business community have shared concerns about Apple’s forced software updates, which will limit businesses’ ability to run personalized ads and reach their customers effectively. … These changes will be devastating to small businesses, adding to the many challenges they face right now.”

Apple released a statement this week in response to the advertisements and the small businesses throughout the nation who are actually concerned that this new policy could hinder how well they’re able to advertise: “Users should know when their data is being collected and shared across other apps and websites — and they should have the choice to allow that or not. App Tracking Transparency in iOS 14 does not require Facebook to change its approach to tracking users and creating targeted advertising, it simply requires they give users a choice.”

Apple and Facebook have clashed in the past over privacy-related concerns as well. Just last week WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, criticized Apple over these privacy concerns and warnings, to which Apple replied that peoples privacies should always be top priority, and they would continue to fight for that.