British users will now also be able to pay to have ads removed from their Facebook, Instagram and (presumably) Threads experiences, with Meta expanding its ad-free subscription offering to users in the U.K., in order to comply with data control laws, while also enabling Meta to maintain its revenue options.
As explained by Meta:
“Over the coming weeks, in response to recent U.K. regulatory guidance and following extensive engagement with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), we will introduce Subscription for no ads in the U.K. This will give people based in the U.K. the choice between continuing to use Facebook and Instagram for free with personalized ads, or subscribing to stop seeing ads.”
Under the new offering, U.K. users will have the option of paying £2.99 per month (or £3.99/month on mobile) to maintain ad-free access to its apps. That will ensure that Meta meets the latest regulatory guidance from the ICO, relating to freedom of data protection, and the capacity for British users to withhold their information if they choose, while also upholding its own revenue generation process.
Though this isn’t exactly the outcome that British privacy advocates had been hoping for.
Meta’s U.K. ad-free offering has been in discussion since March, when Meta settled a case with a British user who had objected to her data being used for ad targeting in the app.
In the original case, brought against Meta back in 2022, U.K. human rights campaigner Tanya O’Carroll argued that she has a legal right to object to the use of her personal data for direct marketing, as per U.K. consumer laws. Meta argued that its targeted ads don’t qualify as direct marketing, but eventually, it opted to settle the case, by ensuring that O’Carroll herself would not have her data used by Meta for ad targeting purposes.
Which was a technical win for O’Carroll, but not the broader victory that she’d been seeking. But stemming from this, U.K. officials have been working with Meta to expand this option to all users, which it’s now doing, by responding in the same way that it has in the EU, by giving users an option to pay a monthly fee to eliminate ads entirely from their Facebook and IG feeds.
“We’re making this change in response to recent regulatory guidance from the ICO. It will give people in the UK a clear choice about whether their data is used for personalized advertising, while preserving the free access and value that the ads-supported internet creates for people, businesses and platforms. Subscriptions, as an alternative to seeing personalized advertising, is a well-established and economically viable business model spanning many industries, from news publishing and gaming to music and entertainment. Having discussed with the ICO, Meta will offer Subscription for no ads at a price that is one of the lowest in the market.”
Privacy campaigners, however, have been pushing for Meta to offer a means to opt out of ad targeting requiring users to pay for such.
In Europe, Meta has received repeated pushback against its ad-free subscription plan, with some suggesting that the option undermines the focus of the GDPR, and its protections against “data capitalism.”
In response, Meta has revised the offering several times, and has cut the price of its ad-free subscription package significantly in order to appease EU regulators, and win broad support for the alternative.
But clearly, Meta is still facing an uphill battle to gain full support for the program in the region:
“EU regulators continue to overreach by requiring us to provide a less personalized ads experience that goes beyond what the law requires, creating a worse experience for users and businesses. In contrast, the UK’s more pro-growth and pro-innovation regulatory environment allows for a clearer choice for users, while ensuring our personalized advertising tools can continue to be engines of growth and productivity for companies up and down the country.”
Essentially, Meta’s argument is that if it’s going to let users opt out of ads, it should still be able to make money from them, if they want to continue using its services. Which, in terms of free market dynamics, is correct, and any move to force Meta to offers its services to users for free would imply that Meta is actually a utility, as opposed to a corporate offering.
But Meta is not government-owned, and cannot be measured on the same basis. So Meta is justified in pushing back against EU regulation, while the U.K. approach seems to be more in line with Meta’s thinking, that if it’s not allowed to process user data, then it should be free to charge an equivalent cost for access to its apps.
Evidently, Meta’s still looking to better align its EU ad-free offering with expectations. But in the U.K., now you can pay to avoid ads, and maintain data privacy, if you so choose.
