Meta temporarily suspends Threads in Türkiye amid Competition investigation

The technology giant Metathat has Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, suspended its Threads micromessaging application in Turkey since Monday in response to a provisional decision by the country’s Competition Authority that prohibits the exchange of data between Instagram and Threads.

Competition believes that the transfer of data between Instagram and Threads allows Meta to obtain information about users on both platforms and use it in its commercial activities, such as targeted advertising, which could result in unfair competition due to its dominant position.

Due to this situation and while the investigation is still underway, Competition ordered Meta in mid-April not to exchange this data.

“The provisional measure of the Competition Authority leaves us with no option but to temporarily suspend Threads in Turkey,” Meta said in a statement on April 15, when the Competition decision became known.

The technology giant indicates that it will continue negotiating to be able to put the application back into operation, although without specifying when.

Competition also imposed an administrative fine of about 138,000 euros per day starting December 12, 2023 as part of another investigation into the notification messages that the company sends to users about data sharing.

According to Competition, this notification about data sharing between the company’s different platforms did not provide enough information or was sufficiently transparent, and was designed to guide users to give approval.

Meta clarified in a statement that the decision to suspend Threads will not affect other Meta platforms and services, such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.