VIENNA: A Vienna-based privacy campaign group said Wednesday it has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Meta, after the tech giant announced plans to train its artificial intelligence models with European users’ personal data.
The move comes after Meta said last month it would push ahead with plans to use personal data from European users of its Instagram and Facebook platforms for AI technology training from May 27, despite criticism over its legality.
Meta has been hit with multiple privacy complaints in Europe, but cited a “legitimate interest” to process personal data for AI training.
The privacy group, the European Center for Digital Rights — also known as Noyb (“None of Your Business“) — threatened to file an injunction or class-action lawsuit against Meta if it does not halt plans.
“Meta’s absurd claims that stealing everyone’s (personal) data is necessary for AI training is laughable,” Noyb founder Max Schrems said in a statement.
“Other AI providers do not use social network data — and generate even better models than Meta,” he added.
When Meta AI first launched in the European Union in late March, the tech giant was at pains to point out that the chatbot was not trained on data from European users.
Its rollout on the continent was delayed by more than a year as a result of overlapping European regulations on emerging technologies, including user data, AI and digital markets.
Following the complaints, Meta temporarily put its AI plans on hold in June 2024, before recently announcing it would go ahead with them.
“It is... totally absurd to argue that Meta needs the personal data of everyone that uses Facebook or Instagram in the past 20 years to train AI,” Schrems said, adding the plans were “neither legal nor necessary.”
“Meta simply says that (its) interest in making money is more important than the rights of its users,” he said, adding that users could simply be asked for their consent.
With about 400 million estimated Meta users in Europe, the approval of 10 percent of them would “already clearly be sufficient” for AI language training and the like, Schrems said.
Launched in 2018, Noyb has taken several court proceedings against technology giants, often prompting action from regulatory authorities.
Meta faces row over plan to use European data for AI
https://arab.news/m84wn
Meta faces row over plan to use European data for AI
- Its rollout on the continent was delayed by more than a year as a result of overlapping European regulations on emerging technologies
- Meta has been hit with multiple privacy complaints in Europe
Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ
- Police said reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility
- Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites
LONDON: Israeli police have arrested two Turkish CNN journalists who were broadcasting live outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv.
Police said the pair were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility, according to the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.
Reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, from the network’s Turkish-language channel, had been reporting near the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters on Tuesday after Iran launched another missile barrage at Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.
During the live broadcast, two men believed to be soldiers approached the crew and seized the reporter’s phone, according to initial reports and a video circulating online that could not be independently verified.
Police said officers were dispatched after receiving reports of two people carrying cameras and allegedly broadcasting in real time for a foreign outlet.
עיתונאים של CNN טורקיה נעצרו לאחר שצילמו את בסיס הקרייה@NoamIhmels pic.twitter.com/t8a5P9yXfw
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) March 3, 2026
Israel’s long-standing military censorship system, overseen by the IDF Military Censor, has long barred journalists and civilians from publishing material deemed harmful to national security.
Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites.
After a series of similar incidents involving foreign media — most of them Palestinian citizens of Israel working for Arab-language and international media, along with foreign journalists — during the 12-Day War, Israeli police halted live international broadcasts from missile impact sites, citing concerns that exact locations were being revealed.
The Government Press Office later imposed a blanket ban on live coverage from crash and impact areas.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently ordered that all foreign journalists obtain prior written approval from the military censor before broadcasting — live or recorded — from combat zones or missile strike locations.
Police said that when officers asked the CNN Turk crew to identify themselves, they presented expired press cards and were taken in for questioning.
Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications, condemned the arrests as an attack on the press and said Ankara is working to secure the journalists’ release.
