Meta to charge EU users ad-free Instagram and Facebook

• Social media sites have been trying to diversify their revenue stream away from advertising with little success.
• X (formerly Twitter) offers a subscription to users to view less ads on their feed.
• TikTok has also been seen testing an ad-free version of its service.

Meta is looking to introduce paid plans for Instagram and Facebook that are ad-free for users in Europe.

This is one of the ways Meta is trying to circumvent a July GDPR ruling that went against the company’s use of personal data for ad targeting purposes.

Meta launched a subscription service that offered different perks to users earlier this year. The perks include a blue-check to show an account has been verified and direct access to customer support. The subscription did not include an ad-free scrolling experience for paying users.

Meta’s family of apps have to gain consent from users before tracking them for advertising purposes according to the EU’s Digital Markets Act Legislation.

Europe contributes nearly a quarter of Meta’s revenue even though the region boasts of only 15%  daily active users for Facebook. Hence, complying with regulators in Europe becomes a bitter pill for Meta to swallow in order to continue raking in the cash.