Irish regulator fines Meta 265m euros over data breach

Ireland s data regulator on Monday slapped ace ook owner Meta with a 2 -million-euro

fine after details of more than half a illion users were leaked on a hacking we site. The ata rotection ommission said it had reached the decision following a comprehensi e inquiry process, including cooperation with all of the other data protection super isory authorities within the . Meta s uropean operations are ased in u lin, along with a num er of other ma or glo al tech companies including oogle, pple and Twitter. s a result, Ireland s data protection agency is the lead regulator responsile for holding them to account. The watchdog found the social media ehemoth led y Mark ucker erg had reached two articles of the s data protection laws.

In addition to the fine, the said it had imposed a reprimand and an order requiring the ace ook owner to ring its processing into compliance y taking a range of specified remedial actions within a particular timeframe . There was no immediate reaction to the fine from Meta. The Irish watchdog launched its pro e in pril 2 2 to determine whether the - wide eneral ata rotection egulation charter on data rights and the corresponding Irish legislation had een infringed. nder the , which came into effect in 2 , social media users ha e a wider range of rights relating to their data. ace ook has pre iously said that the data was scraped from the site y hackers in 2 , who took ad antage of a feature designed to help people easily find friends using contact lists.

The fine follows a landmark decision y the Irish watchdog to fine Meta a record 4 m euros in eptem er after its Instagram platform was found to ha e reached regulations on the handling of children s data. In recent weeks, the has oiced its fears o er a fall in standards in data pri acy and content moderation amid widespread o losses in the tech sector. Meta said earlier this month it planned to lay off more than , staff amid an ad ertising slump. The micro- logging platform Twitter, which also has its uropean headquarters in u lin, has attracted similar criticisms following its acquisition y lon Musk. Tech entrepreneur Musk cut around half of Twitter s , workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation, when he ought the firm.