Facebook Threatens Reduced Features After Beef With EU Regulators

Across the world, features on Facebook are more or less the same, with some notable exceptions such as Facebook Paper which is mainly for US audiences, however on the whole, features in the US will be the same as the UK, which in turn will be the same in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, and so on, you get the idea.

However it seems that Facebook isn’t too happy with how regulators in the EU keep trying to police the company’s practices, so much so that Facebook’s President of Public Policy Richard Allen published a thinly-veiled threat in which he stated that perhaps in the future due to the obstacles posed by such regulators, new Facebook features might not make it to the European region, or could take a long time.

Allen’s post was published on in the Financial Times (paywall; via The Next Web) where in his opinion piece he wrote, “For internet companies…national regulation would pose serious obstacles. Facebook’s costs would increase, and people in Europe would notice new features arriving more slowly, or not at all.”

For those wondering what the fuss is about, it seems that Facebook does not appreciate being investigated by individual countries from the EU, as opposed to being overseen by Ireland’s data protection authorities, which we suppose it makes sense when Allen used this particular analogy to describe the automotive industry.

According to Allen, “If a car made in France or Germany had to meet separate technical requirements in Poland or Spain, Europe’s car manufacturers would face serious handicaps. BMW, Jaguar and Renault might not be the international success stories that they are.” Now we’re not sure how serious or real Allen’s threats are or if he was simply venting his frustration, but what do you guys make of this?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Web
Tags: Facebook, Legal, Social Hit