The European Union fined Meta a record $1.3 billion on Monday and ordered it to stop transferring user data across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. digital snooping fears.

The privacy fine of 1.2 billion euros from Ireland’s Data Protection Commission is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s 746 million euro penalty in 2021 for data protection violations.

The Irish watchdog is Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters is based in Dublin.

Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.

“There is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe,” the company said.

“This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global and affairs, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.

It’s another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook’s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. digital snooping.

The saga has highlighted the clash between Washington and Brussels over the differences between Europe’s strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law.

An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020 by the EU’s top court, which said it didn’t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government’s electronic prying.

That left another tool to govern data transfers — stock legal contracts. Irish regulators initially ruled that Meta didn’t need to be fined because it was acting in good faith in using them to move data across the Atlantic. But it was overruled by the EU’s top panel of data privacy authorities last month, a decision that the Irish watchdog confirmed Monday.

Meanwhile, Brussels and Washington signed an agreement last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy.

EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc’s lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren’t strong enough.

Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”

The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it’s forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore.

Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app’s potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers.
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U.S. President Joe Biden said Sunday that opposition Republicans in the House of Representatives must move away from their “extreme position” on government spending in order to reach a deal with Democrats to raise the country’s borrowing limit before it runs out of cash to pay its bills.

The government could come up short to meet its financial obligations as soon as June 1, but the Democratic president said at a news conference in Hiroshima, Japan, that there will be no agreement to avert a catastrophic default affecting the U.S. and global economies only on Republican terms.

“It’s time for Republicans to accept that there is no bipartisan deal to be made solely, solely, on their partisan terms,” Biden said at the end of a Group of Seven summit of the leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies.

Biden said he had done his part by offering ways to raise the country’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit so the U.S. government can keep paying its bills, such as interest on government bonds, stipends to U.S. pensioners and payments to health care providers and salaries for government employees and contractors. He said, “It’s time for the other side to move from their extreme position.”

Biden was expected to talk later Sunday with Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the debt ceiling negotiations, possibly as he flies back to Washington on Air Force One. While Biden was in Japan, his negotiators met with key Republicans, but the talks produced no agreement, with both sides digging in for their viewpoints on government spending for the year starting in October.

“My guess is he’s going to want to deal directly with me in making sure we’re all on the same page,” Biden said of McCarthy.

Biden said he still believes a compromise remains within reach to avert what would be the first-ever U.S. government default, roiling world stock markets, diminishing the U.S. credit rating and forcing many U.S. businesses to lay off thousands of workers.

“I’m hoping that Speaker McCarthy is just waiting to negotiate with me when I get home. … I’m waiting to find out,” Biden said.

Republicans in the House have called for sharp government spending cuts, rejecting the alternatives proposed by the White House, which has called for closing tax loopholes and more limited spending reductions. In the past, previous presidents and congressional leaders have reached deals to raise the country’s debt limit 78 times in give-and-take negotiations in which neither side got everything on its wish list.

This time, Republicans want increased work requirements for able-bodied poor people receiving government assistance, but Democrats say that under such a proposal several hundred thousand people could lose the benefits they now receive.

Republicans also are seeking cuts in funding for the country’s tax-collection agency and asking the White House to accept provisions from their proposed immigration overhaul to stem the tide of migrants trying to enter the U.S. at the Mexican border.

The White House has countered by keeping defense and nondefense spending flat during the next budget year starting October 1, which would save $90 billion in 2024 and $1 trillion over 10 years.

“I think that we can reach an agreement,” Biden said.

But he acknowledged, “I can’t guarantee that [Republicans] wouldn’t force a default by doing something outrageous.”
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Уряд виділив із Фонду на виконання програми «єВідновлення» 4,4 мільярда гривень
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The United Nations and Turkey have negotiated a two-month extension to an agreement allowing Ukraine farmers to continue to export of millions of tons of grain. That’s good news for Dutch farmer Kees Huizinga, who has been farming in Ukraine for 20 years. Anna Kosstutschenko reports.
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