Irish data watchdog gives Facebook 6 weeks to respond to investigation

Irish data watchdog has granted social media giant Facebook six weeks to respond to an investigation that looks to ban its transatlantic data transfers, as a court ruling allowed for the probe to continue.

The inquiry was launched back in August 2020 by Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) labelling the social media giant’s data transfer dealings from the EU to the U.S. “cannot in practice be used.”

“Following Thursday’s High Court hearing, we have written to Facebook and have given them 6 weeks to provide us with their submissions,” the DPC said in a statement. In parallel, Justice David Barniville highlighted that he “refused all of the reliefs sought by FBI [Facebook Ireland] and dismiss the claims made by it in the proceedings.”

He added that “FBI has not established any basis for impugning the DPC decision or the PDD or the procedures for the inquiry adopted by the DPC.”

With that in mind, Facebook has already threatened to pull out of Europe as a whole if Irish watchdogs succeeds in banning the platform from transferring EU data back to the U.S. especially following the European court of justice enacted a ruling last July marking a lack of safety from U.S. intelligence agencies.

The case has garnered increased significance due to the EU growing more worrisome of the prospect of the U.S. not respecting the privacy of EU citizens specifically from American-based tech companies.

Be that as it may, Facebook has challenged both the inquiry and the order, as it argues that they risk “devastating” and “irreversible” significance to its online advertising business model based on user data.