Latest Tech News (Townflex) – Tech giant Meta announced on Monday that users in Europe aged 18 and over have the option to pay monthly subscription fees to access Instagram and Facebook without ads.

The monthly fee starts at 9.99 euros ($10.50) for a desktop Facebook or Instagram account and can go up to nearly $14 per month for accounts on mobile devices, considering commissions charged by Apple and Google’s app stores.

This subscription service is available to users in the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland.

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These new subscription tiers, scheduled to be rolled out in November, are Meta’s response to the European Union’s crackdown on personalized advertising.

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European regulators mandated that Meta give users the choice to opt out of personalized ads based on their platform activity.

However, privacy and media experts have raised concerns that charging users to opt out of targeted ads may not be in compliance with legal regulations.

Meta’s business model heavily relies on showing ads based on user engagement, but this approach has faced growing scrutiny in recent years.

Apple, for instance, introduced the ability for users to opt out of ad-tracking in 2021, a change that Meta estimated would cost them $10 billion in lost revenue.

The introduction of these new subscription tiers illustrates how Europe’s rigorous regulatory approach is compelling tech giants to make significant adjustments to their operations.

Earlier in May, European regulators fined Meta $1.3 billion for data privacy violations, and the company also postponed the launch of its Twitter competitor, Threads, in Europe due to regulatory uncertainty.

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