Facebook Temporarily Disables Some Messenger and Instagram Features in Europe to Comply With EU Data Rules

[Unsupported]

How so? They have to comply with the laws and it's not unreasonable to explain why theey've had to disable features that may violate them.

They haven't explained anything, they only claimed to be complying with an 18 year old EU directive, now.

They have not given any further explanation, and BTW that announcement is gone and Messenger on Facebook in Safari seems to be back the way it was before. No idea what has changed, if anything.

It's a case of Facebook saying, "Oh look, we respect privacy laws!"

I am not impressed.

 

[dschulian]

Time to change gf

Why should I change my gf, I she's one of the few people who uses iMessages, but not Facebook/Instagram?
You've clearly missed my point. Read again: Everyone – I repeat – everyone except my gf is using WhatsApp.

You should've written "Time to change your friends" instead. But it doesn't make any sense either.
I wouldn't pick my friends by their favorite pocket computer manufacturer.

 

[ruimpinho]

Good. No one want Facebook to spy on everything you do.

 

[apparatchik]

How so? They have to comply with the laws and it's not unreasonable to explain why theey've had to disable features that may violate them.

The laws and regulations didnt popup overnight, Facebook deliberately decided not to adjust these services/features to shame/point fingers at the EU regulation, and decided to develop this user problematic scenario where the service is said to be suspended and coming back later because said regulation.

They could have been either ready by now or transitioned the service out of the app in Europe if they felt it cannot be offered in a complying way to user data protections.

 

[TracerAnalog]

Waiting for the front page ads "Europe are trying to hurt small business!!!"

I was thinking the same thing! 'Europe vs. the free internet' 😂

 

[jacjustjac]

I’m so happy that I’ve got rid of Facebook and Instagram a long time ago.
The last ****** app I’ve installed is WhatsApp because no one I know except my gf is actually using iMessage.
It’s a shame Facetime and iMessage never opened their gates to Android/Windows to conquer the spying ad industry.

Absolutely. I miss that promise made back in 2011 when iMessage was introduced. Although tbh iMessage was the only thing that kept me from switching to the Note 7 in 2016 when iPhones were just doing so bad.

 

[shadyman]

Facebook is another virus that has to be defeated at any cost! Glad that Europe is starting to enforce their regulations against these infringements of privacy. Google. better be the next!

 

[jlc1978]

I was thinking the same thing! 'Europe vs. the free internet' 😂

The Balkanization of the internet was inevitable as it evolved from a relatively exclusive domain of academia nd government to what it is today. It's breadth, scope, and ability to reach populations direvctly will lead to greater government control over it; as a result companies will be forced to decide which laws they will follow and what countries they will not do business in. In some cases it will mean they have different app versions in order to comply and the resultant lessening of interoperability across borders, in otehr stehy simply will block access to apps / websites / etc. based on location.

VPNs add to the dilemma; does a countries rules apply if the person appears to come from somewhere else?

 

[rp100]

Facebook is sensing it’s losing control of the social manipulation narrative. The newspaper ads and now the feature-blocking in Europe are most likely attempts to paint Facebook as a victim. Perhaps they are sensing bad earnings calls in the near future and are preemptively creating excuses for Wall Street. I do find it curious that other corporations are not having the same hissy-fit over Apple’s privacy features... sure, there’s a coalition or whatever, but only Facebook is running ads in the newspaper. Why?

 

[Frantisekj]

It’s a shame Facetime and iMessage never opened their gates to Android/Windows to conquer the spying ad industry.

Stop spreading uneducated opinions and insults. Apple until recently was fighting in court about patents concerning also FaceTime. Things are more complicated them ppl think. At least do some basic googling before posting.
And situation changed a lot in past 10 years on the market. as well

 

[Unsupported]

Facebook is another virus that has to be defeated at any cost! Glad that Europe is starting to enforce their regulations against these infringements of privacy. Google. better be the next!

Maybe sooner than you think...

Google ad practices under fire in new lawsuit

Ten US states accuse the tech firm of illegally trying to preserve its online advertising monopoly.

www.bbc.com

 

[Unsupported]

Maybe this is what it was all about?

Brexit: Facebook to move UK users to California user agreements - here's what it means for you

British users' data will be processed in the US instead of in Ireland, something which is likely to be challenged in court.

news.sky.com

 

[routine_analyst]

Time to break up Facebook! *chants*

 

[Allards]

I don't care about Facebook.. because they only care about themselves! Not missing any feature since I won't open their apps anymore.

 

[Rochy Bay]

Some Messenger and Instagram features are temporarily unavailable to users in Europe in order to comply with new rules on data usage currently being rolled out in EU countries.

Affected users are seeing alerts in the Facebook-owned apps that some features aren’t available to "respect new rules for messaging services in Europe."

The alert doesn't specify what the missing features are, but The Verge notes that polls on both Messenger and Instagram are currently disabled in Europe, while stickers in Instagram are unavailable, as are personalized replies in Messenger. Each support page for the above features currently carries the notice:
The temporary changes are said to be Facebook's compliance with the national implementations of the 2002 Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive (ePrivacy Directive), which imposes stricter rules on data use across communications services that operate in countries that are part of the EU.

Other missing features may include a disabling of file sending on Messenger, missing nicknames, and the ability to share AR effects in DMs on Instagram.

Users in the United Kingdom are also missing the features, because EU law continues to apply to the U.K. during the Brexit transition period (currently due to last until 31 December 2020).

Facebook has not given a specific timeframe for reinstating the missing features, but told The Verge they would return "very soon."

Article Link: Facebook Temporarily Disables Some Messenger and Instagram Features in Europe to Comply With EU Data Rules

I don't understand why they are after facebook and google... Is Apple supposed to be the data guardian and only responsible one here? Last time i checked Apple should be the one to break apart. Just saying.

 

[Mr Lizard]

It’s quite something that Facebook have managed to make friggin’ stickers violate a privacy law.

 

[kb923689]

Google is a close contender.

Google made the internet. Facebook is destroying.

 

[Unsupported]

Google made the internet.

Really?

There was no such thing as Google when I first came online in 1995, and the internet was working fine without it 🤔

There was something called Netscape Version 1.0 which has now become Firefox Version 84 😜

There were several search engines before Google. I know that because duckduckgo.com told me:

Timeline of web search engines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[theotherphil]

More political overreach by the EU. I hate Facebook as much as the next guy, but come on. These new EU rules are complete bull.

It’s a 2002 law.

 

[Baru]

This hurt me. I can't imagine messenger without nicknames and photo edit feature. Why was it removed? EU has nothing to do? I think there is nothing about "privacy" in nicknames and photo editing! If they are worried about privacy then they should let each user decide if he/she wants to set new privacy "EU" settings! I hope they'll bring it back... Or I'll uninstall messenger!

 

[Unsupported]

Google made the internet.

Who Invented the Internet? | Britannica

What most of us think of as the Internet is really just the pretty face of the operation—browser windows, websites, URLs, and search bars.

www.britannica.com

Who needs Google?

who made the internet? at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com

 

[jlc1978]

Really?

There was no such thing as Google when I first came online in 1995, and the internet was working fine without it 🤔

One could argue even better before Eternal Spetember...

There was something called Netscape Version 1.0 which has now become Firefox Version 84 😜

Before that Mosaic and Lynx...

There were several search engines before Google. I know that because duckduckgo.com told me:

We had Archie, Gopher, and later Veronica ...

 

[kb923689]

Who Invented the Internet? | Britannica

What most of us think of as the Internet is really just the pretty face of the operation—browser windows, websites, URLs, and search bars.

www.britannica.com

Who needs Google?

who made the internet? at DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo.com

You know what I mean. Most of the world visit pages indexed by Google. They're the internet. Facebook is nothing but a useless social media app.

 

[jackoverfull]

The situation seems very confusing at the moment...

Some features don’t work on the mobile app (example: audio messages), but work fine on desktop, the mobile site doesn’t seem to work at all, messenger.com got an awful design that makes it almost unusable and sometimes seems offline...

At the same time, the Facebook-owned whatsapp is not affected while apparently being very similar.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I’m so happy that I’ve got rid of Facebook and Instagram a long time ago.
The last ****** app I’ve installed is WhatsApp because no one I know except my gf is actually using iMessage.
It’s a shame Facetime and iMessage never opened their gates to Android/Windows to conquer the spying ad industry.

Apple are too control freak, move on dude, Facetime/iMessage are never going to dominate.

And besides, Apple aren't the squeaky clean angels they pretend to be.

If you really want a messaging app that you can trust, it has to be open source so that it can be scrutinised. Signal is the one you are looking for. It's free, open source, and has encryption.