Meta fined US$277mil for leak of half a billion users

The social network has previously said the data is old and that the problem had been found and fixed in 2019. — Photo by JOSH EDELSON/AFP

Meta Platforms Inc. was slapped with a €265 million (RM1.24bil) fine for failing to prevent the leak of the personal data of more than half a billion users of its Facebook service.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, the main privacy watchdog for Meta in the European Union, levied the fine following a probe that found the social-media company had failed to apply strict safeguards required under the bloc’s sweeping General Data Protection Regulation.