Meta Looking at Paid Subscriptions for EU Residents

Scrolling on Instagram and come across an annoying ad? Well if you live within the European Union, you may be able to pay your way out of it soon.

Meta is currently looking at adding a paid subscription option for Facebook and Instagram users. The subscription would be around $14 per month for people who want to avoid ads on Instagram, and about $17 if they want to use both Instagram and Facebook without ads.

Recently, the EU has been trying to enforce regulations that want tech companies to gather consent from their users before they target advertisements towards them. During July, a court decided that paid subscriptions was a feasible option for consenting for targeted ads.

The issue at hand isn’t about the ads themselves, but is the fact that targeted ads collects data on users to provide them with advertisements the company believes will yield a higher chance of the user engaging with the product. The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation says that companies are allowed to gather personal information from users as long as there is a purpose behind it that fits into a predetermined category. However, some privacy enforcers are saying that Meta’s argument for collection personal information isn’t enough for just advertising. This is the reason they need an option for a paid subscriptions with no ads.

The new subscription plan would only be available to those living in the EU, and not anywhere else. However, all of these changes are still in the works as Meta is looking at all of its options. It might be a while before some users see a subscription for the social media they use everyday.