Meta fined record $1.3 billion for violating Ireland privacy laws
European regulators have fined Meta for a total of $2.5 billion
European regulators hit Facebook's parent company, Meta, with a $1.3 billion fine on Monday, finding that the company had misused Europeans' data.
The decision came after an investigation from Ireland's Data Protection Commission, the lead data regulator for the EU. The organization found that Meta had continued to transfer Europeans' data to the U.S. after a 2020 ruling that should have ended the practice.
Monday's fine is the largest EU privacy fine since the organization hit Amazon with a $746 million fee in 2021.
Meta says it plans to appeal the ruling, calling the fine "unjustified and unnecessary," and saying the ruling "sets a dangerous precedent for countless other companies."
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Facebook parent company Meta is facing a $1.3 billion fine from Europe's data privacy regulators after it continued storing Europeans' data in the U.S. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Meta has argued against bans on transferring data internationally, claiming it could lead to a halt in services for users.
"Without the ability to transfer data across borders, the internet risks being carved up into national and regional silos," Meta said in a statement.
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European regulators have now fined Meta for a total of $2.5 billion across various cases. Regulators still have several open investigations into the company as well.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has faced $2.5 billion in fines against his company from European regulators, more than any other company in the world. (Samantha Burkardt/Getty Images for SXSW / Getty Images)
The fine comes just days after reports found that Meta's Instagram is exploring launching a Twitter-like platform in the near future.
Bloomberg reported Friday that the app being developed by Instagram will be text-based and compete with Twitter. The earliest its rollout could happen is around the end of June, the outlet reported, citing UCLA Extension Social Media and Influencer Marketing Instructor Lia Haberman.
Unnamed sources told Bloomberg some famous people and social media influencers had gotten access to the app in recent months amid it undergoing testing.
Instagram (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The Bloomberg report comes roughly two months after articles put out by Platformer and Moneycontrol quoted a Meta spokesperson as saying the company was "exploring a standalone decentralized social network for sharing text updates."
Fox News' Aislinn Murphy Reuters contributed to this report.