Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has given the Meta-owned social media brand a record-breaking penalty of £1 billion for violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Act when they shifted user information between Europe and the United States.

The law mandates businesses to ask for consent from the data holders before they apply it to other sections of the business.

The decision revolves around the use of standard contractual clauses to send EU data overseas, which are made by the European Commission and make sure that personal data is still protected when it leaves the jurisdiction.

However, despite these measures, authorities still harbour fears that data protected by the GDPR becomes more vulnerable under US’ privacy laws, which are considered to be

Meta announced plans to appeal the decision as they called it “unjustified and unnecessary”

Nick Clegg, the president of Facebook, added: "We are therefore disappointed to have been singled out when using the same legal mechanism as thousands of other companies looking to provide services in Europe.

"This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US."

Back in 2021, WhatsApp was given a £193 million fine for breaching GDPR rules by the same body.

At the time, a spokesperson said: "We have worked to ensure the information we provide is transparent and comprehensive and will continue to do so. We disagree with the decision today regarding the transparency we provided to people in 2018 and the penalties are entirely disproportionate."