Turkey cracks down on Meta: interim ban on Instagram and Threads data sharing

Meta is not having a great start of the week. Turkey’s competition watchdog implemented a temporary restriction on Meta to block the exchange of data between Instagram and Threads.

The reason is that there’s an ongoing investigation into Meta’s potential abuse of its dominant position in the market (via Reuters).

This action follows the initiation of a probe in December by the watchdog into Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for potentially breaching competition laws by linking Instagram with its newer platform, Threads.

The watchdog stated that the interim measure will be in effect until a conclusive verdict is reached, since the data obtained and merged through these two apps could “violate competition law and cause irreparable damage” in the market.

On a side note, the Turkish authority fined Meta 4.8 million lira ($148,000) daily as part of a separate investigation over a notification message that the company sends users about the sharing of data.
The notification about data sharing between the company’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp services did not provide sufficient information and was not transparent enough, it said.

The authority also noted that the manner in which the notification prompts users to consent to data sharing does not adequately mitigate concerns regarding anticompetitive behavior.