Facebook and Instagram will let European users see fewer personal ads

Meta will soon give Instagram and Facebook users in the European Union the option to limit personalized ads, in an effort to comply with the bloc’s tech rules. The European Commission announced that the new advertising options will be rolled out in January 2026, and that this is “the first time that such a choice is offered on Meta’s social networks.”

“Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising,” said the EU Commission. These upcoming changes are the result of a “close dialogue” between the EU and Meta, and the bloc will assess the the uptake and user impact of the new ad model following its rollout next month.

The new advertising options are being introduced in response to Meta being slapped with a €200 million (about $266 million) fine in April for breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA) that requires consumers to have the choice to limit how much of their data is used for advertising. The penalty was issued after Facebook and Instagram forced users to either pay a subscription fee to remove ads, or consent to having their personal data used for ad-supported versions of the platforms.