The serene, uninterrupted scroll through photos and videos on Instagram and Facebook now has a price tag in the UK: up to £3.99 a month. Meta, the parent company of the social media giants, has unveiled a subscription plan designed to give users a choice to eliminate ads, a move prompted by significant regulatory heat over its data privacy practices.
The subscription will be rolled out in the coming weeks. For mobile users, the cost of this digital silence will be £3.99 per month, while web users will be offered a lower rate of £2.99 per month. In a practical concession, Meta has stated that a single payment will cover both platforms if a user’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are linked, preventing a double charge for the same service.
This new model has been given the green light by the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The watchdog, which has long argued that users should have an “opt-out” from data-driven ad targeting, welcomed the move. The ICO sees it as a step towards compliance with UK law, as it breaks the previous model where accepting targeted ads was a mandatory condition of using the services.
However, this solution has been firmly rejected within the European Union. Regulators there deemed a similar service to be in breach of the Digital Markets Act, leading to a hefty €200m fine for Meta. The European Commission’s stance is that a company cannot charge users for privacy and should instead offer a free alternative that relies on less detailed personal data for any advertising it shows.
This tale of two regulatory outcomes highlights a deepening divergence between the UK and the EU. As noted by legal experts, the UK’s approval is a “pro-business” decision that aligns with a governmental push for economic growth in the digital sphere. It solidifies a separate path for the UK, where market-based solutions to privacy concerns are deemed acceptable, unlike in the more rights-focused EU.
£3.99 a Month for Silence: The Cost of an Ad-Free Instagram in the UK
