Internet
Paid subscription to Facebook and Instagram without advertising
Facebook without advertising will cost ten euros a month in the future. photo
© Christophe Gateau/dpa
The Facebook group Meta earns billions from advertising. In the future, Facebook and Instagram users will be able to buy their way out of ads with a subscription.
The Internet group Meta offers a paid subscription for ad-free use in Europe Facebook and Instagram. If you want to use the two social networks without advertising, you have to pay ten euros a month in the European Union, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Meta announced this in a blog entry on Monday.
For another linked account – for example if someone wants to use both Facebook and Instagram without advertising – an additional six euros will be charged after a transition period. Until March 1, 2024, the first subscription covers all linked accounts in a user’s Account Center. The prices for subscriptions taken out on smartphones are higher. The subscription there will cost 13 instead of 10 euros. In this way, Meta passes on its commission payments to the operators of the app stores, Apple and Google, to the end customers.
Meta is reacting to the changing data protection situation in Europe with paid subscriptions. Following court rulings and regulator decisions, among other things, the requirement to use users’ permission to personalize advertising is being more strictly enforced. Data from different services under the umbrella of a group may only be combined with the express consent of the users.
The option to purchase an ad-free subscription takes into account the requirements of the European regulatory authorities, the blog post continues. At the same time, the option gives users a choice and enables Meta to continue to serve everyone in the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
At the beginning of the year, the Irish data protection authority imposed a fine of 390 million euros on Meta for breaches of data protection regulations. Meta was prohibited from using the so-called contractual legal basis to display personalized advertising based on tracked user activities. The group then announced that it would ask users in the EU for their consent before allowing providers to place targeted advertising. Anyone who accepts personalized ads can now continue to use the networks free of charge. For everyone else, the subscription model is intended to be an alternative.