MLSA - Following a decision by the Turkish Competition Authority dated March 18, META's social platform Threads will temporarily cease operations in Turkey starting April 29. The Competition Authority found that META’s practice of using data collected from Instagram to benefit Threads hindered competition by merging user data across platforms. The decision highlighted that META collected personal data even from articles users read on news websites, which was deemed to distort competition.
META’s data policy integrates personal data harvested from Instagram with that from Threads, enabling tailored advertisements and services to be offered to users, and then sold to advertisers. For instance, a user sharing vacation posts on Threads could be targeted with holiday advertisements on Instagram, facilitated by a system that merges personal data from both platforms into a single database.
The decision underscored the strength and resources META has accrued through its ecosystem, which includes Instagram and Facebook, allowing it to enhance its market power and position. This integration of services across different markets was noted as potentially having a detrimental effect on competition.
Furthermore, the ruling highlighted the extensive range of data processed by META, including age, biographical details, follower information, and personalization data. It was pointed out that META could track even the articles a user read on a news website after forgetting to log out of their Threads account.
Personal data, crucial for free platforms like META, is utilized for targeted advertising, a business model also employed by other platforms like Google, Twitter, and TikTok. The combination of personal data is a core aspect of these models, which was highlighted as complicating competition.
The Turkish Competition Authority has imposed a temporary measure preventing the merging of data by META until the investigation into violations of the Competition Law is concluded. Otherwise, META faces administrative fines. As a result, Threads announced the termination of its operations in Turkey from April 29.
