An Instagram application that was created to compete with Twitter, Threads crossed over 100 million users within less than five days which was released last week. This amount was reached despite the platform not being offered on the European market. However, it appears that individuals in the area were attempting to access the recently created site over VPN in order to do so. According to the most recent development, Meta is also preventing it by stating a message “not available in your region.”
From Meta’s side, there has been no official justification regarding the restriction of access for EU customers using VPNs. In order to use such personal data lawfully for ad targeting under EU data protection legislation, Meta needs a solid legal basis. According to Meta’s privacy statement and the Threads app’s iOS listing, both declare that the program may collect a variety of personal data, including highly sensitive information like health and financial data, exact location, browser history, contacts, and search history, the Threads app follows users extensively.
This act from Meta has really upset the European citizens, and a lot of people poured out their dis heartedness, and someone even stopped to access the app. Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra), a Twitter creator, has stated,” Instagram appears to have blocked EU users from accessing Threads via a VPN. Profiles and content not loading. Notifications not working.”
Expected that the thread to launch in the regions of Europe by this year. Of course, the EU should wait for the official confirmation from Meta. This issue can be seen as a cause of a strict set of data rules that are being followed in the European Union(EU), which do not allow tech companies like Meta to combine the data from different sets of applications like Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.
