The Irish DPC’s move came after NOYB, a Vienna-based digital rights advocacy group, complained to DPAs (data protection authorities) in 11 countries including Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, and Norway, to “immediately stop Meta’s abuse of personal data for AI.”
“Regulating against known harms is necessary, but pre-emptive regulation of theoretical harms for nascent technologies such as open-source AI will stifle innovation. Europe’s risk-averse, complex regulation could prevent it from capitalizing on the big bets that can translate into big rewards,” the joint statement by Meta and Spotify said referring to the Irish regulator’s decision.
Europe’s regulatory challenges and their global impact
Despite Europe’s strong tradition in open-source development, Zuckerberg and Ek argue that the region’s inconsistent regulatory framework is stifling innovation. They cite the uneven application of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a prime example of regulatory uncertainty that is hindering progress.