Over the weekend, several reports suggested that Meta may consider shutting down its services within the EU due to an ongoing legal challenge over how it handles EU user data. Meta noted that a European Union privacy regulator sent the company a preliminary order to suspend data transfers to the US about its EU users in 2020. The order was based on rising concerns among EU officials in regards to potential surveillance practices by the US Government.

On the other side, Meta has published a latest post explaining that has no plans to remove its apps from Europe:

"We have absolutely no desire to withdraw from Europe; of course we don’t. But the simple reality is that Meta, like many other businesses, organisations and services, relies on data transfers between the EU and the US in order to operate our global services. We’re not alone. At least 70 other companies across a wide range of industries, including ten European businesses, have also raised the risks around data transfers in their earnings filings."

After Meta’s latest post we can say that a full EU shutdown of Facebook and Instagram seems unlikely. Facebook alone has 427 million users in the EU, and it was the only region where it saw any significant growth in the most recent quarter and that’s not including Instagram.