Meta will provide paid versions of Facebook and Instagram in Europe to avoid ads, according to a report

As a result of regulatory scrutiny, Meta Platforms is exploring premium versions of Facebook and Instagram with no adverts for users in the European Union (EU), according to the New York Times on Friday.

Those who pay for the subscriptions would not see advertisements, while Meta would continue to provide free versions of the applications with advertisements in the EU, according to the article, which cited three people with knowledge of the plans.

According to the article, the potential move might help Meta resist privacy concerns and other scrutiny from the EU by providing customers with an alternative to the company's ad-based services, which rely on analyzing people's data.

Meta did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Reuters.

The social media titan has been the target of EU antitrust authorities, and it lost a July battle against a 2019 German decision that prevented it from gathering users' data without their agreement.

According to the NYT story, it is unknown how much the commercial editions of the app would cost.

Since August 14, the social networking giant has been fined NOK 1 million (about Rs. 77,51,000) every day for violating users' privacy by harvesting user data and exploiting it to target advertisements at them. The corporation is requesting a temporary restraining order against the data protection authority's ruling, which carries a daily fee for the next three months. Datatilsynet, the regulator, had stated on July 17 that the corporation would be penalized if it did not fix the privacy violations discovered by the regulator.