Instagram was fined €405 million ($403 million) by the Irish Data Protection Commission for breaching the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
After nearly two years of investigation, EU authorities finally imposed a fine on Instagram for violating children’s privacy by publishing the email addresses and phone numbers of kids aged 13 to 17. The DPC has not yet provided any additional information about the fine.
Meta Spokesperson responded on the said sanction via email and stated:
“This inquiry focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago, and we’ve since released many new features to help keep teens safe and their information private,” and added “Anyone under 18 automatically has their account set to private when they join Instagram, so only people they know can see what they post, and adults can’t message teens who don’t follow them,”
The EU has fined Meta many times for GDPR breaches. Previously, the DPC fined WhatsApp (€225 million in 2021) and Facebook (€17 million in March).
Meta added that:
“We engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, and we’re carefully reviewing their final decision.”
