Turkey ends probe into Meta over Threads data sharing
Turkey's Competition Board has ended its investigation on Meta after the company agreed to new data-sharing terms for Threads.
ANKARA — A Turkish watchdog has ended an investigation into Meta over the cross-platform data sharing between Threads and Instagram.
Meta temporarily suspended Threads in Turkey in April after the country’s Competition Board previously ruled that the platform violated the country’s antitrust laws by allowing cross-platform data sharing as part of an investigation launched last year.
The board said in a Thursday statement that it decided to end the investigation after the company pledged to address concerns over violations stemming from the cross-platform data sharing.
Under the guarantees provided by Meta, Threads users in Turkey, both those whose accounts are currently suspended and new ones, would be able to use Threads without needing an Instagram account and data obtained through Threads will not be combined with Instagram data unless users choose to merge their accounts, according to the statement.
“As a result, these commitments will become binding for Meta, and the ongoing investigation will be concluded,” the statement read.
The Threads platform was still not available in Turkey as of this writing. As part of the investigation launched last year, the country’s Competition Board also fined Meta 335 million liras (roughly $9 million).
