Spain's data protection authority has blocked Meta from launching two features on Facebook and Instagram that the tech giant said were designed to encourage users to participate in the upcoming EU elections.
The tools, called Election Day Information (EDI) and Voter Information Unit (VIU), would send notifications to all eligible Instagram and Facebook users in the EU, reminding them to vote.
Both features should soon be rolled out across the EU (except Italy, where there is already an ongoing dispute with Meta on the matter).
You might think that the more people vote, the better for democracy. But the Spanish data protection authority AEPD believes that the new features violate the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The new features would require the entry of personal information such as name, IP address, age and gender. Meta claims that this data collection is essential to determine whether or not a user is eligible to vote.
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“Our voting tools have been expressly designed to respect user privacy and comply with the GDPR. Although we disagree with the AEPD's assessment in this case, we have complied with their request,” said a Meta spokesperson. Reuters.
However, the AEPD stated that this was “totally disproportionate in view of the alleged purpose of providing information on the elections” and “violated the rights and freedoms of Instagram and Facebook users.”
“Users would see an increase in the amount of information Meta collects about them, allowing for more complex, detailed and comprehensive profiling and leading to more intensive processing,” AEPD said..
The Spanish regulator added that Meta had not justified the need to store the data after the election, which “indicates an additional purpose for the processing operation”.
The AEPD is using the emergency powers contained in the GDPR to act quickly and protect online users in Spain.
Under the rules, such an injunction can last up to three months, but with elections taking place next week, June 6-9, the ban does not need to remain in place for too long to be effective.
Meta has repeatedly run into trouble with EU regulators over the way it collects and processes user data. The Big Tech company has Fines totalling 2.5 billion euros about seven individual penalties, most of them related to violations of the GDPR.
Back in April, the EU launched an investigation into Facebook and Instagram within the bloc. Digital Services Act for allegedly violating election integrity rules for large online platforms.
