Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has privately tried to convince the Irish Government to lead a pushback against data protection laws at European Union level, correspondence shows.
The interpretation by regulators of strict EU rules that protect individuals’ data and privacy is “completely out of control”, Meta’s chief privacy officer and vice-president Erin Egan told Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan in a May 23rd letter.
The correspondence shows Meta has expanded the scope of its campaign against EU regulations to include the bloc’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which puts greater obligations on big tech multinationals to safeguard the data of people using their platforms or services.
Europe’s approach to data protection requires a total overhaul, Ms Egan told Mr O’Callaghan in her letter.
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“We believe that the EU’s data protection and privacy regimes require a fundamental overhaul and that Ireland has a very important and meaningful role to play in achieving this,” she wrote.
The letter, seen by The Irish Times, said a desire by Brussels to simplify some of the union’s rules and regulations offered “a small window of opportunity, that must not be wasted, to make targeted but meaningful changes”.
Meta claimed the EU rules, introduced in recent years to put some guardrails on the online sphere and Big Tech, were “stifling innovation and creating uncertainty for service providers”.
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Ms Egan said Meta has been going back and forth with regulators about the company’s plans to train its AI models using public Facebook and Instagram posts.
An effective green light from the Data Protection Commission, which enforces data and privacy laws in Ireland, was a ”welcome step”, she wrote.
However, Meta said despite the extensive talks at Irish and European level, Germany’s data regulator threatened to intervene to block its plans to use public posts to train its AI product. The intervention, which the Hamburg authority later dropped, undermined the authority of Ireland’s commission, Ms Egan told the Minister.
“This development highlights, again, the urgent need for GDPR reform to ensure balance, coherence and effectiveness in the EU’s data protection framework,” the letter said.
Meta has taken a more aggressive stance towards the EU’s digital rule book since US president Donald Trump’s return to office. Mr Trump has also targeted the union’s tech regulations for regular criticism.
The company has stepped up its lobbying efforts in Dublin and Brussels in a bid to water down the EU’s regulation of the tech sector.
Meta has been handed several fines by Ireland’s regulator and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, for breaching data protection or digital regulations. Some of the rulings have directed the company to change how it operates or stop certain features, a practice that has infuriated Meta executives.
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In correspondence to Mr O’Callaghan, Meta said the EU’s data laws should be revised to take better account of “economic interests” and private sector innovation.
Meta asked for the Government’s support in taking concerns about the “ineffectiveness” of the existing data protection framework to Ireland’s EU commissioner Michael McGrath, who oversees GDPR rules in his role as justice commissioner.
Dublin could also flag the company’s concerns to other European governments, Ms Egan suggested. “We would be grateful for your support for these changes, and for your advocacy at European level to achieve them,” the Meta executive wrote.
The correspondence between Meta and Mr O’Callaghan was released to The Irish Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. A spokeswoman for Meta said the company did not have any comments to add beyond what it had set out in the letter.
A Department of Justice spokesman said Ireland supported the commission’s plan to simplify EU data protection laws. Though any changes had to “get the balance right”, by reducing some administrative burden, “while continuing to protect the fundamental rights of citizens”, he said.
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