4pm News Network: Big news is coming out regarding Facebook and WhatsApp. Meta/Whatsapp has taken a big hit from the Competition Commission of India. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) imposed a fine of Rs 213.14 crore on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp. According to the information, CCI has imposed this fine on Meta for adopting unfair trade practices in connection with WhatsApp privacy update in 2021. Along with this, the Competition Commission of India has also directed Meta to stop anti-competitive behavior and desist from such activities.
In addition to this, CCI said in its order that Meta has misused its domain. Apart from this, this fine is also related to how WhatsApp’s 2021 Privacy Policy was implemented, how user data was collected, and how it was shared with other Meta companies.
Let us tell you that the Competition Commission of India has also said that WhatsApp cannot share Indian users’ data collected on its platform with other meta companies for advertising purposes for 5 years. This is considered a big blow for WhatsApp. Because on WhatsApp alone there are more than 500 million monthly active users in the country.
Do you know what accusations have been made against META?
CCI found in its investigation that WhatsApp’s take-it-or-leave-it policy update was not fair. That is, this policy forced all WhatsApp users to accept the data collection terms and share data within the metagroup without any opt-out option.
According to the ICC investigation, this policy presented by Meta, which was presented in the form of an update, forces users to comply with it and reduces their autonomy. According to CCI, Meta has violated Section 4(2)(A)(i) through WhatsApp.
The government imposed this fine on WhatsApp
- WhatsApp will not share user data collected on its platform with other meta companies or meta company products for advertising purposes for the next 5 years.
- In the future, if Meta shares this data anywhere, then the consumer would need to know where their data is being shared and their permission will need to be obtained.
- In such a situation, no other conditions will be imposed on the consumer during that period.
- Along with this, the consumer will have the option of accepting the company’s policy or not, he will not be forced to accept any policy.
- Apart from this, if any update is made in the future, the consumer will not be required to accept any policy.
