- The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) has ordered a precautionary measure against Meta and any of its social media platforms.
- The precautionary measure is focused on any new election-related features that the company may launch soon.
- The AEPD has cited privacy concerns over any collection of voter data that election-focused features may result in.
South African voters headed to stations earlier this week to take part in a significant Election Day, but we are not the only country with elections this year. Spain too is preparing for its own national elections, set to take place on 9th June early next month.
Much like SA’s elections, there are concerns surrounding misinformation on the big day, but unlike our own regulators, Spain is taking a rather drastic step in banning Meta from launching any election-related features on Facebook or Instagram.
The ban comes in the way of a precautionary measure as the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) calls it. Citing privacy concerns related to GDPR, the AEPD is suspending the launch of the Election Day Information (EDI) and Voter Information Unit (VIU) functionalities, and the collection and processing of data involved in their use.
These functionalities would involve the processing of personal data including user name, IP address, age and gender, and information about how the user interacts with them by Meta.
“The Agency orders this measure as it considers that the data processing planned by the company involves an action contrary to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that, at least, would breach the data protection principles of lawfulness, data minimization and storage limitation. Through these two functionalities, which consist in providing information to Facebook and Instagram users about the EU elections, Meta intends to process personal data such as, among others, user name; IP address; age and gender or information on how it interacts with those functionalities,” the AEPD outlined in an official statement.
“The Agency considers that the data collection and storage planned by the company would put at serious risk the rights and freedoms of Instagram and Facebook users, who would see an increase in the volume of information Meta collects about them, allowing for more complex, detailed and exhaustive profiling, and generating more intrusive processing,” it added.
While Spain’s regulator has shared its concerns regarding Meta and its involvement with elections, the tech company says it is operating with GDPR in mind. “Our election tools have been expressly designed to respect users’ privacy and comply with the GDPR. While we disagree with the AEPD’s assessment in this case, we have cooperated with their request,” spokesperson, Matthew Pollard, told TechCrunch in a statement.
With the EU set to have Parliamentary elections on the same weekend, as well as the likes of Iceland, Belgium, Croatia, Austria, the UK, and others set to have some sort of elections this year, it will be interesting to see whether other nations in the region adopt a similar stance as Spain on Meta’s involvement.
Either way it looks like regulators are being more cautious when it comes to dealing with social media platforms, regardless of the intent the tools they plan to launch may have.
