A coalition of companies, including Meta and Spotify, criticized the European Union on Thursday for its "fragmented and inconsistent" approach to data privacy and artificial intelligence (AI) regulations. Alongside several researchers and industry groups, these firms signed an open letter asserting that Europe is already losing its competitive edge and could further lag behind in the AI era. The signatories urged data privacy regulators to make "harmonized, consistent, swift, and clear decisions" to allow European data to be utilized in AI training for the benefit of Europeans.
The letter specifically addressed recent decisions made under the 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Meta, the owner of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, recently suspended plans to gather data from European users to train its AI models due to pressure from privacy regulators. "In recent times, regulatory decision-making has become fragmented and unpredictable, while interventions by the European Data Protection Authorities have created significant uncertainty about what types of data can be used to train AI models," the letter stated.
A spokesperson for the European Commission at the time reiterated that all companies operating within the EU are expected to comply with data privacy regulations. Meta has faced substantial fines for violating user privacy, including a single penalty exceeding one billion euros under GDPR. In addition to data privacy rules, Europe was the first regional bloc to enact significant legislation aimed at preventing AI abuses—its AI Act took effect earlier this year.
Meta and other tech giants have increasingly postponed product launches in the European market, citing the need for legal clarity. For instance, Meta delayed the EU-wide release of its Twitter alternative, Threads, by several months last year. Similarly, Google has withheld the release of AI tools in the EU.
