For at least the past year, Meta has had legal and privacy entanglements with the European Union where the ad business within Facebook and Instagram are concerned. As a result, there have been reports of the company considering offering an ad-free subscription plan in addition to the usual free use experience. It looks like the company is implementing its subscriptions starting next month.
Meta says that both Facebook and Instagram will start offering “the choice to pay a monthly subscription” to use them ad-free in the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzereland. The announcement post says that “While people are subscribed, their information will not be used for ads”. Also mentioned in the post is that this will start in November, but with no specific date as to when exactly it starts.
That being the case, assuming it starts immediately as the new month rolls over the monthly cost for the subscription will be EUR9.99 (~RM50) a month on the web or EUR12.99 (~RM66) a month on iOS and Android. The higher price for mobile is due to the usual cut that both platforms take. The subscription will cover all linked Facebook and Instagram accounts in one’s Accounts Centre, until 1 March. At that point, additional accounts linked will cost EUR6 (~RM30) and EUR8 (~RM40), respectively.
For now, this move is understandably a response to the region’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). So while there’s no sign of it being a thing elsewhere, there’s always a chance that Meta would decide that the model is viable elsewhere in the world. After all, it has already started charging for Meta Verified.
(Source: Meta)
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