I’m not so sure. Norway imposed a $100k/day fine, Meta lost the challenge, and the ban went EU-wide. This was the reason Meta adopted a subscription/opt-in option. It wasn’t just play acting; Meta had to downgrade their financial outlook publicly.
Meta knows there are adversarial watchdog groups and whistleblowers are always a possibility. The EU isn’t screwing around; if Meta intentionally starts cheating, they will be forced out of the EU.
I hope you’re right! (Sincerely.)
I don’t mean this as like a challenge, but can you post a link to a site (preferably a Meta site) that confirms that?
I mean, how else does Facebook suggest friends, remind you it’s your spouse’s birthday, let you know if you’ve been tagged in a photo, or show you all the stories it thinks you will doomscroll through, etc. using only anonymized or aggregated data?
Isn’t that all personal data that necessarily has to be associated with your account in order for Facebook to function as everyone expects it to?
Because of how silicon valley has gone off the rails over the last decade we need a strong reshaping of regulation for the tech industry. I don’t know precisely how, but I’m sure their are plenty of PhD’s written about a less malignant internet. But as a rule of thumb anything Elon/Zuck/Thiel/Altman don’t want done, should be done.
I see what you’re getting at. The first three cases (friends, bday, tags) are absolutely tracked in your profile. These are intentional and expected features of Facebook, so they are not restricted.
What’s not allowed in the EU is tracking for advertising purposes. The Meta Pixel on 3rd-party websites will report your behavior to Meta, but they can’t attach that info to your profile for advertising. This is the link I was using yesterday.
I was wrong and over-stated the case though. I’m glad you asked for more info because I didn’t realize this.
Meta collects your data from 3rd-party sites for analytics, security, and site improvement. I thought this was all anonymized and aggregated as well. However it’s not; this info can be attached to your profile. To disable this, you have to explicitly turn it off with the “Activity From Other Businesses” setting. This is on by default for paid subscriptions too. The EU is pushing back on this collection under the GDPR law.
For the last part from today, that I was wrong about, I used Gemini AI. This is the link it gave for analytics collection.
So sorry, you were right, the net effect of the default paid subscription in the EU is that you don’t get targeted ads. My addition is that they don’t just turn off the targeted ads, they also stop collecting the data that drives targeted ads.
Heh, are we even capable of regulating anything anymore? It’s all been captured. Warren and one of the former FTC chiefs tried to take baby steps towards this, and their efforts were quickly shut down and then overturned completely under TrumpV2. It’s like one step forward, ten steps back. The only ones seriously championing strong digital regulations today are the AI companies themselves, trying to lock out their upstart competitors and control the legal narrative for themselves. And they’re all in bed with Trump and Musk.
I think it’s more likely that anything Elon/Zuck/Thiel/Altman wants done, will be done, and there’s nary a check or balance left in the country to stop them.
Except… wait, I guess data centers are bipartisanly unpopular everywhere! In places where the citizens are able to preempt their council being bribed out, there’s been some small successes in NIMBYing data centers away. But just as often, shell companies and backroom deals can pretty quickly corrupt an entire city or county government before the residents have had any chance to react.
They have lobbyists and the multimillionaires that pay them, and you don’t. You have scruples, and they don’t. They have spent many years perfecting the art of human manipulation, and you haven’t.
While this is true, it doesn’t really have anything to do with ads.
The platforms would still want you to be as engaged as possible to retain the subscription revenue. It’s like how ad-free streaming platforms do things to get you to watch more content. They present shows on the title screen they think will interest you. They jump into another episode or movie as soon as the last one is over. They know if you get bored with their content, you will cancel your subscription. The same would be true for an ad-free, subscription-based social media platform. They would still want you on the platform as much as possible to ensure you subscribe for as long as possible.
Except all of those people are die hard Republicans as the GOP sits on the precipice of a midterm wipeout, I’m sure a lot of people probably would have considered Dodd-Frank impossible, until it wasn’t.
The last time Dems had a majority strong enough to pass actual regulations Silicon Valley was considered a very progressive industry, now almost every Dem (other than Ro Khanna) hates their guts.
I don’t think “the Dems will save us” really worked the last few times 
I hope I’m wrong, of course, but I wouldn’t count on them doing anything at all about Big Tech, even if they swept the midterms. They get bribed a whole bunch too, y’know? And they’re far less willing to abuse the bully pulpit or executive powers, so whatever they do manage to implement tend to be stomped on the next time the pendulum swings back anyway. It just seems a bit silly to still believe “voting can change everything!” in 2026.
I came here to say this.
I should have made it more clear that what I had in mind had the force of law or some sort of regulation saying that with no ads their would be no collecting of data. I have no idea how you could force through a law like that without running afoul of the constitution.