Facebook Parent Meta Highlights $18B Annual Contribution To Europe's Economy, Weeks After Warning It Could Be Forced To Quit

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc FB says it has contributed $18 billion each year to Europe’s economy since 2019 thanks to its investment in the highest capacity transoceanic cables.

What Happened: In a statement Sunday, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company said it had commissioned two new studies by  Analysys Mason and RTI International to understand the impact of the company’s investments in undersea fiber optic cables.

The RTI International study indicated that Meta’s investment in Marea — one of the highest capacity transoceanic cables in the world — contributed nearly $18 billion each to Europe’s economy annually since 2019.

“Over the last decade, we’ve invested billions in partnerships to improve connectivity around the world. With these open, collaborative efforts, we’ve seen firsthand how industry-wide collaboration can help bring the world online to a faster internet,” the company said.

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Why It Matters: Meta had said earlier that it may shut down Facebook and Instagram in Europe due to data regulations on the continent that prevent it from transferring, storing and processing Europeans’ data on US-based servers, reported Euronews.

E.U. leaders shrugged off the warning from the operator of social media platforms.

“I can confirm that life would be very good without Facebook and that we would live very well without Facebook,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said, as per Euronews.

Germany’s Finance Minister Robert Habeck said “after I was hacked I have lived without Facebook and Twitter for four years and life has been fantastic,” as per the same report.

Meta said in its statement that its investments in undersea cables in the Asia Pacific are expected to add $422 billion in gross domestic product between 2021 and 2025 to the economy in that region.

“These efforts are also expected to create up to 3.7 million new jobs in APAC alone,” said Meta.

Price Action: On Friday, Facebook shares closed 1.4% higher at $210.48 in the regular session and fell 0.2% in the after-hours trading.

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