Meta cuts EU ad-free subscription price by 40% for Facebook and Instagram
It's pretty weird to live in a world in which there are sales on the price of not being bombarded with advertisements but, alas, here we are.
On Tuesday, Meta announced that it is reducing the price of a monthly subscription for its ad-free tier in the EU by 40 percent, from €9.99 to €5.99 on the web and from €12.99 to €7.99 on iOS and Android. Each additional Facebook or Instagram account will be charged €4 on the web and €5 on iOS and Android.
The company also announced that it would "offer people in the EU an additional new choice to use Facebook and Instagram for free with less personalized ads."
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Meta adds that it will use "significantly less data to show ads," which means the ads will likely be less relevant to someone's interests. The company notes that it's offering this option despite studies showing that "people and businesses prefer personalized ads." Personalized ads, the company notes, "will always be the cornerstone of a free and inclusive internet."
"Over the coming weeks, people in the EU who choose to use Facebook and Instagram for free with ads will be able to choose to see 'less personalized ads,'" Meta said in a blog post. "This less personalized ads option relies on less data, so we’ll show ads based only on context – what a person sees in a particular session on Facebook and Instagram – and a minimal set of data points including a person’s age, location, gender, and how a person engages with ads."
This comes a year after Meta first announced it would be offering a monthly subscription fee to use Facebook and Instagram without any ads for users in the EU, EEA, and Switzerland.
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
