Meta Clarifies, that Not Threatening To Leave Europe
In a blog post, Meta made it clear that they have no intention of withdrawing from Europe.
Meta is not wanting or “threatening” to leave Europe and any reporting that implies we do is simply not true. Much like 70 other EU and US companies, we are identifying a business risk resulting from uncertainty around international data transfers.
This is not new. We’ve raised international data transfers in each of our earnings since at least Q2 2018, and highlighted the specific risk to our services in Europe and the need for a safe, secure EU-US data transfer mechanism in our last four earnings.
There has been reporting in the press that we are “threatening” to leave Europe because of the uncertainty over EU-US data transfers mechanisms. This is not true. Like all publicly-traded companies, we are legally required to disclose material risks to our investors. Last week, as we have done in our previous four financial quarters, we disclosed that continuing uncertainty over EU-US data transfers mechanisms poses a threat to our ability to serve European consumers and operate our business in Europe.
We have absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe; of course we don’t. But the simple reality is that Meta, like many other businesses, organisations and services, relies on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate our global services. We’re not alone. At least 70 other companies across a wide range of industries, including ten European businesses, have also raised the risks around data transfers in their earnings filings, said Markus Reinisch, Vice President, Public Policy Europe, Meta.