Turkey’s competition authority has imposed an administrative fine of 335.7 million Turkish lira ($10.4 million) on Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc due to the sharing of users’ data between its social networking platforms, the state-run TRT Haber reported, citing a statement from the regulator.
In December the regulator launched an investigation into Meta over a possible violation of competition law by linking its social media platforms Instagram and the newer Threads.
In March the Turkish Competition Authority imposed an interim measure on Meta intended to hinder data sharing between the Instagram and Threads platforms as it investigated a possible abuse of the company’s dominant market position.
After Meta announced last month temporarily shutting down its social networking platform Threads in Turkey as of April 29 in order to comply with the interim order from the Turkish Competition Authority, a daily fine of 4.8 million lira (about $148,000) imposed in March on the company was lifted. However, the company has been slapped with the administrative fine of 335.7 million Turkish lira due to the abuse of its dominant market position.
According to Meta policy, users were required to have an Instagram account to log into the Threads app. In addition, users who wanted to delete their Threads account were forced to delete their Instagram account as well.
The Turkish Competition Authority has found data sharing between Meta’s social networking platforms ruining the competition in the social media sector, “violating the competition law and causing irreparable damage” in the market.
Meta launched the social networking venture Threads in July 2023, leveraging Instagram’s audience to build a new microblogging site to compete with X, formerly known as Twitter.
But unlike Instagram, which is photo and video-based, Threads is a predominantly text-based social-networking platform though users can also post media files such as photos, links and short videos.
Although the Threads app was immediately available in the US and more than 100 other countries, including the UK, its debut in Europe lagged until December 2023 due to strict privacy laws in the region.
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