Ireland prohibits Facebook from transmitting EU user data to the United States, otherwise will face huge fines

The US Consumer News and Business Channel reported on the 10th local time that the Irish data regulator had issued a preliminary order to the US technology company Facebook last month, requiring them to stop transmitting data from EU users to the US, otherwise it will face high fines.

According to the preliminary order, Facebook must store the data of EU users in the EU. If the order is violated, the regulator will have the right to impose a fine of up to 4% of annual revenue, which is US$2.8 billion, or approximately 19.14 billion yuan.

Previously, there was a "European and American Privacy Shield" agreement between the European Union and the United States, which stipulated that data transmission between the European Union and the United States could be carried out directly without special authorization. But in July this year, the European Court of Justice ruled that the "European and American Privacy Shield" agreement was invalid.

According to the "European and American Privacy Shield" agreement, the United States promises to strictly implement the requirements of the agreement and ensure that the national security department will not take arbitrary monitoring or large-scale monitoring measures on these personal data. However, the European Court of Justice held that EU citizens had no effective way to counter the US government's surveillance, so it decided to restrict US companies from sending European user data to the US.

It is believed that although the Irish Data Protection Commission's order is directed at Facebook, it may also issue similar orders to other US technology giants in the future. This operational and legal challenge may also extend to other technology giants.