Irish regulators will slap Instagram with a massive fine after an investigation found the social media platform mishandled teenagers’ personal information, allowing them to publish accounts showing their phone numbers and email addresses
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it made a final decision last week to fine the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company 405 million euros ($591 million), though the full details won’t be released until next week.
The penalty is the second-biggest issued under the EU’s stringent privacy rules, after Luxembourg’s regulators fined Amazon $1 billion last year.
Instagram app appears on a phone screen.
Instagram owner Meta has been fined $595 million over handling of teens’ data, letting them set up accounts that publicly displayed their phone numbers and email addresses. (AP)
Instagram parent Meta, which also owns Facebook, said that while it had “engaged fully” with regulators throughout the investigation, “we disagree with how this fine was calculated and intend to appeal it”.

The Irish watchdog’s investigation centred on how Instagram displayed the personal details of users ages 13 to 17, including email addresses and phone numbers.

The minimum age for Instagram users is 13.

The investigation began after a data scientist found that users, including those under 18, were switching to business accounts and had their contact information displayed on their profiles.

Users were apparently doing it to see statistics on how many likes their posts were getting after Instagram started removing the feature from personal accounts in some countries to help with mental health.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta which owns Instagram
Instagram had allowed users aged between 13 and 17 to operate business accounts on the platform, which showed the users’ phone numbers and email addresses (AP)

Instagram said the inquiry focused on “old settings” that were updated more than a year ago, and it has since released new privacy features for teens, including automatically setting their accounts to private when they join.

“We’re continuing to carefully review the rest of the decision,” the company said.

Under the EU’s data privacy rules, the Irish watchdog is the lead regulator for many US tech companies with European headquarters in Dublin.

The watchdog has a raft of other inquiries into Meta-owned companies.

Last year, it fined WhatsApp 225 million euros for breaching rules on transparency about sharing people’s data with other Meta companies.