14 DAY TRIAL // Richard Allan, Facebook’s chief of public policy, explained in an opinion article for the Financial Times why he believes that Europe’s regulatory fragmentation could have negative consequences on the development of American companies.
The executive expressed his disapproval of how Europe is trying to hinder the advancement of tech companies with its strict rules regarding users’ privacy.
As expected, Facebook dislikes the idea of having to comply with a series of requirements for each European country that it offers its services to.
Allan revealed that it would be much better for both sides if Europe came up with a general set of rules which could apply for all countries involved, rather than have each country come up with its own version.
More regulators, less features
This would mean that the social networking site would have to deal with multiple regulators at once which would be a total drawback for the company and European users, as well.
The latter might have to face discrimination from users from non-European countries, given that it would take a longer period for the platform’s innovations to reach them.
"Facebook’s costs would increase and people in Europe would notice new features arriving more slowly, or not at all," Mr. Allan wrote in the Financial Times.
In other words, Facebook is trying to threaten the European Union with rolling out fewer features to users, all because of the regulatory fragmentation. The declarations also target European users who be utterly disappointed if they had to wait more than others to enjoy the updates.
The Facebook’s executive alarming remarks follow the recent news which announced that several regulators from European countries might be joining hands to look into Facebook’s privacy controls.
Allan also brought forward the Ireland issue, stating that despite the fact the company has decided to set its headquarters there, Europe is not entitled to try to impose its own regulations over the company.