Facebook and Instagram to offer paid subscriptions in Europe

Meta announced Monday that it would start offering paid-for subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram, its popular digital services, within the European Union from next month.

Those forking out for a monthly subscription will not have their personal information used to target them with advertising, while those who do not pay will still have their data collected to power Meta’s lucrative advertising model.

People will be able to pay between €9.99 and €12.99 a month, depending on whether they want to access the subscriptions via either the web or their smartphones. The fees will allow users to access both Facebook and Instagram. A company spokesman declined to comment when the subscription offering would become available in November.

The move comes as Meta has faced a backlash from the 27-country bloc’s regulators, lawmakers and courts on how it has handled people’s data to service up personalized advertising. The EU’s privacy regime has made it increasingly difficult for companies to collect users’ personal information without expressed consent for how it will then be used.

The company said it would be rolling out the subscriptions only within the EU, the wider European Economic Area and Switzerland. The subscriptions would not be available to those outside these regions and countries.

Today, Meta also said that it was temporarily stopping all ads displayed to minors within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland starting as soon as the week of November 6. The pause comes amid legal uncertainty about how companies can use children’s data to target them online.