Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced on July 29 that it would reconsider its personal information collection policy, under which existing users would have their accounts closed unless they agreed to provide personal information not clearly related to the operation of the social networking sites, such as the user’s educational history or frequently visited websites.
The policy, announced in May, would have taken effect on July 26, affecting South Korea’s 18.3m Instagram users and 11.7m Facebook users. The potential cancellation of service was only applicable to South Korea as “an additional measure to meet the expectations of South Korea’s personal information protection,” according to Meta.
South Korea’s civic groups, as well as legislators including Baek Hye-ryeon 백혜련 and Kim Seong-ju 김성주 of the Democratic Party 민주당 and Jang Hye-yeong 장혜영 of the Justice Party 정의당 had been pressing Meta to change its policy.
