In an important step, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta announced their decision to comply with the regulations set out in the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DMA). The DMA, which comes into force in March, aims to prevent tech giants from favoring their own services and restricting users in their ecosystems.
Meta’s complianc will have far-reaching implications for the user experience
One of the key changes resulting from Meta’s decision will be the ability for users to separate their Messenger and Facebook Marketplace accounts from their main Facebook account.
This move allows individuals in the EU to use these services with independent accounts, removing the requirement to have a Facebook account to access them. Even conversations in the Facebook Marketplace will now take place via email.
Meta actively opposed the DMA’s regulations and initially filed an appeal arguing that Messenger and the Facebook Marketplace should not be subject to the DMA. The company has now chosen to comply with the requirements, marking a significant change in its approach to regulatory compliance.
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This change means that users in the EU will be able to keep their Facebook and Instagram accounts separate. The impact of compliance extends beyond Messenger and Marketplace to other Meta platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta ads.
The DMA describes some companies, including Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance and Microsoft, as well as Meta, as “gatekeepers”. These gatekeepers are subject to regulation due to factors such as their user base, revenue, valuation and role as important gateways between businesses and consumers in relation to core platform services.
While Meta opted to comply, other companies designated as gatekeepers, such as ByteDance and Apple, opposed the DMA’s regulations before they came into force in March 2024. Alphabet owner Google, in particular, recently announced measures to allow users to block platforms such as YouTube and Chrome from sharing their data, highlighting the tech giants’ different responses to the evolving regulatory environment.
