Meta has announced that it will begin training its artificial intelligence (AI) models on public content from Facebook and Instagram users in the EU, marking a significant shift after a prior pause due to regulatory concerns over data privacy. Starting this week, Meta will utilize public posts, comments, and user interactions with Meta’s AI to enhance its models.
This update follows the limited rollout of Meta AI in the EU last month, which came after its earlier launch in the U.S. and other international markets.
While Meta has long used user-generated content to train its AI models in the U.S., its efforts in the EU have been met with significant regulatory resistance. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s stringent privacy law, has required Meta to ensure a clear legal basis for processing personal data before using it for AI training purposes.
In June 2024, Meta paused its plans to use EU and U.K. user data for AI training after receiving pushback from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the regulatory body overseeing Meta’s operations in the EU. The DPC’s objections were supported by multiple data protection authorities within the bloc. However, by September 2024, Meta had resumed its AI training efforts, focusing on public posts from its U.K. user base.
Now, Meta has confirmed that it will extend these efforts to include public posts from its EU users, too. “Last year, we delayed training our large language models using public content while regulators clarified legal requirements,” the company stated in a recent blog post. “We welcome the opinion provided by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) in December, which affirmed that our original approach met our legal obligations. Since then, we’ve engaged constructively with the IDPC and look forward to continuing to bring the full benefits of AI to our platforms.”
Meta’s move to resume AI training with European data highlights its ongoing efforts to align its practices with evolving legal frameworks in the region. It also underscores the company’s commitment to transparency and collaboration with regulatory bodies.
