For years, many UK users have dreamed of an ad-free Facebook and Instagram. That dream is now becoming a reality, but it comes with a monthly subscription fee. Meta has finally created a way to escape its advertising machine, transforming a long-held user wish into a new premium product.
The price for realising this dream is £3.99 a month for mobile users and £2.99 a month for web users. By paying the fee, users can turn their dream of a clean, uncluttered feed into their everyday reality across all linked accounts. Those who don’t subscribe will continue to live in the ad-supported world.
This move was made possible by the endorsement of the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The regulator, which had pushed Meta to provide an opt-out from ad targeting, sees this paid subscription as a legitimate way to fulfill that dream of choice for UK consumers.
However, in the European Union, this dream remains a contentious issue. The EU has declared that users shouldn’t have to pay for such a fundamental aspect of their digital experience, fining Meta €200m for the proposal. The EU believes the dream of a more private experience should be accessible to all, for free.
So, while the ad-free dream is now attainable for Britons, it is a commercialised one. Meta has cleverly taken a common user desire, repackaged it as a premium service, and in doing so, solved a major regulatory problem for itself in the UK.