Meta might pull Instagram and Facebook in Europe if regulators illegalize Meta's sharing of customer data with its U.S. servers, Business Insider reports.

Back in 2020, Ireland's data watchdog said that the company's practice of sharing data may be illegal, and the regulator is now set to deliver a final ruling on this Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) practice in the first half of 2022, Facebook revealed in its annual report.

"If a new transatlantic data transfer framework is not adopted, and we are unable to continue to rely on SCCs or rely upon other alternative means of data transfers from Europe to the United States, we will likely be unable to offer a number of our most significant products and services, including Facebook and Instagram, in Europe," Meta wrote in its annual report.

However, the European Court of Justice had earlier invalidated a data-sharing arrangement called Privacy Shield between the European Union (EU) and the U.S., saying that the U.S. data surveillance was too intrusive, The Wall Street Journal reported.

'The EU Will Not Be Blackmailed'

European Parliment member Axel Voss this week accused Meta of trying to force the EU into accepting weaker data protection laws, tweeting, "Meta cannot just blackmail the EU into giving up its data protection standards. I have always called for an alternative to the EU-US Privacy Shield. Leaving the EU would be their loss."

The annual report revealed Meta derives nearly a quarter, 24%, of its profit from Europe.

A Meta spokesperson told Insider: "We have absolutely no desire and no plans to withdraw from Europe, but the simple reality is that Meta, and many other businesses, organizations and services, rely on data transfers between the EU and the U.S. in order to operate global services.

"Like other companies," the spokesperson continued, "we have followed European rules and rely on Standard Contractual Clauses, and appropriate data safeguards, to operate a global service. Fundamentally, businesses need clear, global rules to protect transatlantic data flows over the long term, and like more than 70 other companies across a wide range of industries, we are closely monitoring the potential impact on our European operations as these developments progress."