By Mauro Orru and Seda Aydin
Turkey's competition watchdog imposed a fine on Meta Platforms, saying the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner is stifling competition by sharing user data across its platforms.
The Turkish Competition Authority said Monday that Meta was combining data it collected from users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp through a notification message designed to guide users to approve cross-platform data sharing, hampering the activities of competitors across the social-network and advertising markets.
The regulator said Meta should provide information on how to use its applications even if users refuse to have their data shared across platforms, and fined the company almost 4.8 million lira ($149,512.22) a day, retroactive to Dec. 12, 2023, until its notification message is brought into compliance.
In 2021, the authority launched an investigation into the company's data-sharing practices, giving Meta until Dec. 9, 2023 to address competition concerns. However, the regulator said Meta's proposals were insufficient.
In a separate decision on Monday, the authority imposed an interim measure preventing data sharing across Instagram and Meta's Threads microblogging app, saying the company was sharing data from users who create Threads profiles based on their Instagram accounts without providing them with a confirmation option.
The authority said the size and diversity of Meta's user base made its services attractive for advertisers since the company has been gathering data for many years, making it difficult for competitors to access advertisers.
A Meta spokesperson said the company is considering the authority's decisions and will have more to say in due course.
While Turkey is not a member of the European Union, the two decisions from its competition authority show the extent to which Meta continues to be caught in the cross hairs of regulators over its handling of user data.
The company launched Threads in the U.S. last summer, but had withheld launching it in the European Union because of the bloc's regulations for online services, which are among the toughest in the world.
Threads only launched in Europe in December with a special set of rules. Users in the EU can choose to create a Threads profile connected to their Instagram account, or use Threads without a profile only to search accounts, browse and share content via link copying or platform sharing, without the ability to create a post or directly interact with content.
Last year, a group representing more than 80 media outlets in Spain filed a lawsuit against Meta, saying the company hadn't complied with European data-protection laws that require users' consent before their data are used for advertising profiling.
Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-18-24 0853ET
