As Meta fights against rules hindering its harvesting of user data, certain threats have been made. If the company can't continue its data hoarding, it'll pull Facebook and Instagram out of European countries. As it turns out, two major European countries — Germany and France — couldn't care less.
Germany and France ministers dare Facebook to leave
Via Bloomberg, Germany and France have united against Meta's threats to pull Facebook and Instagram, Oculus and more from Europe. German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and French Finance Minister Bruno Le Marie mocked the company at a recent event.
“After being hacked I’ve lived without Facebook and Twitter for four years and life has been fantastic,” Habeck laughed as the topic of Meta’s threats arose.
Le Marie echoed the sentiment, adding: I can confirm that life is very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook. Digital giants must understand that the European continent will resist and affirm its sovereignty.”
Habeck continued to explain that Meta’s threats won't intimidate the European Union, no matter the size of Zuckerberg’s company. He said: “[The EU] is such a big internal market with so much economic power that if we act in unity we won’t be intimidated by something like this.”
Read More: Democrats urge governments to abandon dangerous facial recognition tech
Meta continues to insist it'll leave Europe
After the European ministers told Meta that they won't miss the social media company, Meta retaliated with more threats. Essentially, the massive conglomerate responded with a we’ll really do it, guys, trust us statement.
Via Bloomberg, the social media giant is continuing to make its threats, despite no one really caring. While the company wants users to know that it's not pulling out of Europe, it also wants governments to know that it could do it if it doesn't get its way.
With this in mind, Facebook’s presence in Europe seems pretty solid, even if it annoys Meta executives. However, if would be pretty funny if Facebook was simply plucked from Europe. That would be a hoot.