Zuck is not threatening to starve Europeans of insta, Zuck is threatening to take away the most expedient propaganda tool a government ever had. Zuck is overtly threatening the political class that relies on his psychotic technology.

Exactly this, I wonder why everyone is missing it.

Even if politicians had a spine the far more likely thing would be Facebook withholding their propaganda services until any undesirable legislation is rolled back, not saying goodbye to half a billion users.

No, it's more than that, it's threatening to take away a large portion of the bread and circuses too.

Oh that would be fun.

Make no mistake, I'd be losing a lot. Fb is helping me get sales done, so that would probably be a hit.

But that would be fun though. And, in the long run, probably a good thing.

Too bad it's not really going to happen.

Shorty short, Marky Mark.

Having no stake in this whole vendetta against Facebook (other than the privacy of fellow internet dwellers), I am watching it unfold with a grin.

Obviously they won't exit, that would be suicide. I hope their bluff is called, which would reveal Mark's increasingly weak negotiational position.

But who knows, maybe Meta really is about to implode. I'll keep some popcorn handy just in case.

I'm shocked by how much media attention this disclosure has received. I don't think Zuck is "threatening" anything. The same annual report also said immigration policies are a risk to Meta/Facebook's ability to hire enough talent. That doesn't mean Meat/Facebook is threatening to stop hiring people. It's a risk to the business. They disclosed that risk as required. I have nothing nice to say about Facebook and I wish for it's speedy demise but all of this news is just people taking a benign and factual disclosure completely out of context. It's absurd. Then again, I suppose Facebook contributed the very viral (dubious) "news" cycle they now find themselves the target of so perhaps it's just the universe's way of evening things out...

I don't think Facebook created the news cycle. That was more of a product of the 24-hour cable news channels

If they actually did that, their stock would crater.

Our "best and brightest" are spent on stalker/manipulation tech.

All I wanted was an easy way to share baby pics with the grandparents and friends...

I'm curious as to how a shareholder views this in light of the hit the stock took earlier in the month when MAUs fell by a -- compared to the population of the EU -- tiny amount.

Being forced to process the data in the jurisdiction you're doing business in seems like a strange spot to make a stand.

Given how big a drop in price that tiny drop caused last week, maybe it's all a ploy.

1. Zuck drops facebook/insta/meta out of the EU

2. huge drop in MAU

3. larger/similar drop in share price (how much lower can it honestly go?)

4. then, any MAU drop will seem meaningless after the big EU MAU drop. FB avoids weeks/months/years of slow stock price deterioration at 5% or so (compounding) in exchange for a one-time 25% drop. Seems like a deal.

Will somebody call his bluff?

I have a lot of friends and family for which this would be quite detrimental, in the short (and perhaps medium) term if it happened. I don’t wish for their means of staying in touch with each other to just disappear overnight.

Personally and somewhat selfishly though, I couldn’t think of anything that would delight me more than if Facebook buggered off out of Europe.

please, please!

Wut? They are threatening suicide, and hoping enough others are affected adversely?

“I see this as an absolute win”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Zuckerberg!

Good, let them leave.

It’s sickening how unethical of a move this is. EU regulators are going to deprive hundreds of millions of people from being closer together / sharing valuable memories. This will go down in history as one of the worst abuses of state power.

“You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

I think if Facebook leaves Europe someone who plays by the rules will quickly take their space. It's not like creating a photo-sharing site or social network is hard to do. Facebook is only still around because of the network effect someone else would be happy to move in.

Exactly - they won't just lose their user base in Europe - a lot of their consumer base outside Europe will then be motivated to start using these competitors to keep up with their friends and family (plus influencers) in Europe.

They've bought companies to keep from having to face competition in their network effect. I doubt they'll let segmentation of surveillance data push them out of that large of a market.

I think it is best to make explicit when you are being sarcastic, because now a casual reader might expect you to be serious.

VPN is a thing if still needed but it's sad to see the internet now being bordered. At one point is was the wild west now moreso then ever the perception of the free web is gone.

I can think of many ways of 'sharing valuable memories' (etc). Facebook seems to have very successfully convinced many people ('hundreds of millions'), that they are the only service that can provide such.

I don't understand why do you think being forced to ask users before collecting data about them is an abuse of state power.

I strongly disagree (admittedly with strong emotions too), but I'm still interested in how you think, I wish you explain more, regardless of the down-votes.

You are not yelling "fire" in a theater, you are just sharing your opinions on how you think capitalism needs to work. I wish people should stop down-voting, I mean we get it, but having to select text to read is very annoying.