A combined Facebook and Instagram subscription is coming to European users in the next few weeks, enabling an ad-free experience in both services for €9.99/month ($10.60).
Alongside this, parent company Meta has announced that it is “pausing” all advertising to under-18s at the same time, meaning they get the same privacy benefits as a paid subscription at no cost …
Background
Meta has been facing a huge problem in Europe: The company makes most of its money from personalized ads, which of course rely on sucking up as much personal data as possible to determine which ads to display.
But that business model is under threat from EU legislation, which requires people to be given the choice about whether or not to have their data used in that way.
Meta’s solution is to offer a paid subscription, which lets users avoid not just tailored advertising, but all ads.
Ad-free Facebook and Instagram subscription
The company announced that it will introduce the subscription sometime in November.
In November, we will be offering people who use Facebook or Instagram and reside in these regions the choice to continue using these personalised services for free with ads, or subscribe to stop seeing ads. While people are subscribed, their information will not be used for ads.
People in these countries will be able to subscribe for a fee to use our products without ads. Depending on where you purchase it will cost €9.99/month on the web or €12.99/month on iOS and Android. Regardless of where you purchase, the subscription will apply to all linked Facebook and Instagram accounts in a user’s Accounts Center.
That dual pricing of course reflects Apple’s cut if people buy via in-app purchase.
If you have more than one linked Facebook and Instagram account shown in your Accounts Center, then a single subscription gets you ad-free access to all of them. However, that only lasts until March, then you’ll need to pay an extra €6/month per additional account.
Which countries are getting the option?
Meta says the subscription will be available in the EU, EEA and Switzerland. That means:
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Republic of Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
Notably, post-Brexit, the UK is not included in any of the three categories.
No ads for under 18s
Alongside this, Meta has announced a “pause” in advertising to under-18s. That’s because the legislation offers stricter protections to children, and simply ceasing to display ads to them altogether is the simplest solution.
The company would be free to display non-personalized ads to kids, but as its entire business model is built on targeting, that may not be something it can easily do right now. The word ‘pause’ does, though, imply that it plans to solve that problem.
9to5Mac’s Take
This is a smart move by Meta. The EU has already indicated that – for adult users – an opt-out in the form of a paid subscription will be legal. It’s likely that a relatively small proportion will pay, but this leaves the company compliant with the law – while also ensuring that it replaces the lost ad revenue for anyone who opts out.
On a personal note, I’m hoping that the omission of the UK from the press release was an oversight. While the UK’s relationship to EU law is rather messy post-Brexit, in principle most GDPR protections still apply, though whether the tailored ad ban applies is less clear.
Personally, I find Meta’s ads completely out of hand, and would gladly pay €10 per month to remove them.
Photo: Meta(ish)
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