Staff Writer
By denying access to his new Threads program to users in Europe, US internet billionaire Mark Zuckerberg has entered a high-stakes game of brinkmanship with the European Union, but observers predict he will find it difficult to prevail.
In its first week available in app stores, Threads, dubbed as the “killer of Twitter,” attracted more than 100 million subscribers. Twitter is a social media site that has descended into chaos under the direction of volatile businessman Elon Musk.
However, Zuckerberg’s company Meta said that it could not be made available in Europe due to “regulatory uncertainty” surrounding the Digital Markets Act, an antitrust law that will not take effect until the following year.
Diego Naranjo, director of policy at the advocacy group European Digital Rights, said, “The explanation they gave made me laugh.”
“Meta doesn’t like the regulation, but it’s not uncertain; it’s very certain.”
According to his theory, when Meta releases Threads to the rest of the world, Europeans will be so enraged at having missed out that they will exert pressure on the EU to weaken the DMA.
One who believes the plan will fall flat is Naranjo.
In any case, the rest of the major tech platforms will be glued to their screens since this conflict could influence how all of them will be governed in the future in Europe.
“Fatal” strike
Because of their practices around data collection and storage, Meta and the others frequently run into issues with EU regulators.
They struggle to adhere to the provisions of Europe’s cumbersome GDPR, which has been in effect for five years.
Their response to the DMA’s announcement was subdued since it appeared to be about business and competition, which was a simpler—though not without difficulties—topic for them.
Because Threads and Instagram accounts are linked, the DMA prohibits the top digital companies from favoring their own platforms. This is problematic for the most recent rollout.
However, the DMA’s Article 5.2 dropped a bombshell: the companies would not be allowed to transfer customer data between platforms without explicit permission.
The DMA’s regulations, according to Berin Szoka, president of the pro-business US research tank TechFreedom, would need asking users’ Instagram acquaintances for permission before transferring their data to Threads.
“In practice, this could prove fatal to Threads’ rollout,” he said, adding that the network effect would be destroyed immediately.
“I don’t really think Meta has a good way out of this,”
Naranjo doesn’t feel much sympathy for Meta, claiming that the EU ban was only a “political push” on the part of the company against the EU.
He answered, “We’ll see who loses more. “I predict that Meta will suffer more from losing their network of 450 million potential customers.”
‘Time Question’
The Threads issue, according to the European Consumer Group (BEUC), demonstrated the DMA acting just as it should.
The DMA does not obstruct the development of new goods or innovations, according to Vanessa Turner, the group’s competition expert.
“It fosters innovation from more competitors while simultaneously protecting consumers,”
Few anticipate Meta to keep its embargo in place permanently because it has left the door open for a Threads debut in Europe.
Expert in European law Alexandre de Streel predicted that major tech companies would likely be negotiating compliance issues with the EU over the next months.
I believe it will need more time to comprehend the legislation’s reach and communicate with the commission, he added.
Szoka, however, warned that the EU would soon experience some unforeseen repercussions.
It would be especially tragic if DMA protected Twitter from rivalry, he argued.
He asserted that Meta has made a commitment to make Threads interoperable with other services, saying, “That’s something Twitter has only talked about.”
