Meta Sued for Privacy Violation, Stops Launch of AI Model in Europe

Meta's move comes after complaints and calls from advocacy group NOYB for data protection authorities to take action against Meta's breach, including in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain.

The lawsuit targets Meta's plans to use personal data to train artificial intelligence (AI) models without users' consent, although the company says it only uses licensed and publicly available online information.

“We are disappointed by the request from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), our lead regulator, on behalf of European DPAs…,” Meta said on its blog, calling Ireland’s request a setback for European innovation and competition in AI development.

“Simply put, without local information, we would only be able to give people a second-rate experience. This means we cannot launch Meta AI in Europe at this time,” Meta said.

The DPC welcomed Meta's suspension, saying its decision was made after working closely with the regulator. NOYB President Max Schrems attributed Meta's suspension to complaints filed by the group last week.

Huy Hoang (according to Reuters)