It seems that Europe is getting closer and closer to the blackout of Facebook and Instagram: the Irish privacy supervisor has notified the European one that it will block the flow of data from Europe to the United States.
The passage from Ireland remained the only legal method that Meta, the owner of both the aforementioned social platforms, could use to transfer the data of European citizens to overseas servers.
Until 2020, a treaty known as the Privacy Shield was in force, but the European Union canceled it due to growing fears of US surveillance. The possible closure of the “Irish corridor”, let’s put it this way, has been talked about for some time, and Meta was perfectly clear in explaining its position: “we will probably no longer be able to offer some of our most important products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, “he said in a paper for the US SEC last March.
Is it really possible that this scenario, which we do not doubt will be hoped for by at least someone, will occur? “Possible”, yes, about “probable”, we are skeptical, also because at the same time the US and the EU are already negotiating a new treaty that regulates the flow of data between the two markets.
Indeed, a first political agreement has already been reached last March, but in the passage, of the details and legal quibbles the issues have stalled a bit. At this point, it is now unlikely that a deal will be announced by the end of the year.
For its part, Meta says that the decision is a simple “conflict between US and European laws in the process of being resolved”, and that “the new framework will allow us to maintain connected families, communities and economies”. We will have to wait for the next few months to understand how the situation will evolve.
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