Don’t Throw Me in That Briar Patch

In response to numerous rulings restricting the transfer of user data from its users in the EU to the United States, Meta is threatening to shutdown Facebook and Instagram in Europe.

So, if the artist formerly known as Facebook follows through with this bluff, we get:

• EU citizens get better protection for privacy.
• Potential replacements in the EU could stand themselves up, if they haven't already in a matter of weeks.
• It would be difficult for any potential competitor to be any more toxic than Zuckerberg's toxic spawn. (Facebook literally makes people miserable to increase engagement)
  
• It would introduce competition into a market now dominated by a monopoly.
• The senior executives would be in the EU, and thus easily available to judicial and legislative inquiries.  
• It gives the EU an opportunity to establish a more competitive and transparent online advertising market.
  

Seriously, what's not to love here? 

Europe ends up with a better and more competitive social media ecosystem, and the users benefit:

Europeans risk seeing social media services Facebook and Instagram shut down this summer, as Ireland's privacy regulator doubled down on its order to stop the firm's data flows to the United States.

The Irish Data Protection Commission on Thursday informed its counterparts in Europe that it will block Facebook-owner Meta from sending user data from Europe to the U.S. The Irish regulator's draft decision cracks down on Meta's last legal resort to transfer large chunks of data to the U.S., after years of fierce court battles between the U.S. tech giant and European privacy activists.

The European Court of Justice in 2020 annulled an EU-U.S. data flows pact called Privacy Shield because of fears over U.S. surveillance practices. In its ruling, it also made it harder to use another legal tool that Meta and many other U.S. firms use to transfer personal data to the U.S., called standard contractual clauses (SCCs). This week's decision out of Ireland means Facebook is forced to stop relying on SCCs too.

Meta has repeatedly warned that such a decision would shutter many of its services in Europe, including Facebook and Instagram.

Seriously, the EU should call Facebook's bluff.