Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Facebook threatens to quit EU after spat with Irish regulator

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I can't imagine Facebook actually leaving Europe but I think they need to rethink their position. I think we know how American governments would react if a social network refused to obey a law prohibiting user data from being sent to, say, China. So nobody should be surprised that Ireland wants Facebook to obey European law and to cease sending user data to the United States. Now some may say that China and the U.S. are two very different cases, but I think we've learned from the recent histories of both countries how quickly things can change. Europeans have also learned this lesson, which is why personal data protection is so important, and why laws like the GDPR exist. Now to be clear, nobody in Europe is threatening to seize and sell Facebook, nor to shut it down. They just want it to obey the law. That may be optional in some countries, but I'm hoping Europe will make it stick.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 25, 2024 08:22 a.m.

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