Meta bends over and gives Europeans less personalized ads

The EU requires Meta to adjust its business model. This concerns the ‘pay or agree’ model, where you, as a user, have to accept a whole bunch of advertisements unless you take out a paid subscription. Now there is an intermediate form.

Pay, or endure it.

The European Commission has announced that Meta will offer users an alternative that shows fewer personalised advertisements. This concerns Facebook and Instagram. Meta does not do this on its own: it is because it wants to avoid receiving a mega fine from the EU. It all comes down to Meta’s policy: either agree to data tracking and see all kinds of personalized ads, or pay to get more control over your social media. In April, Meta was already fined 200 million euros for this policy, but now Mark Zuckerberg and his team have decided to take a middle path.

Does Meta get off that ‘easily’?

Meta says personalized ads are essential to the European economy, but it is now introducing an option that lets you see fewer of them. We mainly owe this to the EEU’s Digital Markets Act: legislation that makes it harder for big tech to collect data. Brussels is not ready with Meta now. It has already launched an antitrust investigation into the AI ​​within WhatsApp. And Meta knows not to mess with the EU, because last weekend the same Digital Markets Act resulted in Elon Musk’s X being fined 120 million euros. Something that has now led the CEO to start an online smear against the EU, because he believes that all countries should be sovereign and the EU should be closed down.

Brussels vs the USA

In short, no friends are being made in Brussels, and that not only says something about the bond with American tech companies: Trump has already indicated that the EU is going too far and that it is censorship. Spoken like an actual business person. It remains to be seen when we can expect this new option for less personalized advertisements: talk is in January 2026.