Why hasn’t Threads launched in the EU? Earlier this week, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), the chief regulator in the EU which governs Meta, said the company had confirmed that it did not plan to launch its Threads app within the EU this week. A spokesperson for the regulator said that it had been in contact with Meta about the new service and that it would not be rolled out in the EU “at this point”, according to the Irish Independent. Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which came into force earlier this year, tech giants are heavily limited on the data they can share between services they own. This has repercussions for Threads, which brings a user’s data over from Instagram to create their profile. The Irish Independent claims that Meta is seeking clarification from the DPC on how these rules will apply to Threads before they proceed with a launch in the EU market. The DPC has previously blocked the launch of other Meta features in the past, including its Facebook Dating service and Messenger Kids app. In May, the regulator fined Meta a record €1.2 billion (£1 billion) after it ruled the company had breached EU regulations by transferring European users’ Facebook data to the US. Meta will be forced to stop transferring Facebook users’ data to America within five months, and has been given six months to remove data from US servers.

How is Meta regulated in the UK? The regulation of Meta and other tech platforms in the UK are overseen by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which confirmed earlier this week that the launch of Threads would go ahead. “We have received confirmation from Meta that Threads will launch in the UK on July 6 and are continuing to engage with the company on its approach to data protection compliance,” a spokesperson for the ICO said. The UK is not subject to the EU’s Digital Markets Act and does not have equivalent provisions on the statute books as the law passed after the UK’s departure from the EU in 2020. New laws on data and privacy are in the works in the UK via the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. The government claims the legislation “sets out the UK’s common-sense led data laws and will give organisations greater flexibility to protect personal data, while maintaining high data protection standards.”