Facebook and Instagram will allow European users to see fewer personalized 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 technology rules. The European Commission announced The new ad options will be introduced in January 2026, and that this is “the first time such a choice has been offered on meta social networks.”

“Meta will effectively give users a choice between: consenting to sharing all their data and seeing fully personalized ads, and choosing to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalized ads,” the EU Commission said. These upcoming changes are the result of a “close dialogue” between the EU and Meta, and the EU will evaluate the uptake and user impact of the new advertising model after its rollout next month.

The new advertising options are being introduced in response to Meta being hit with a €200 million (about $266 million) penalty. Fine in April Due to a breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which 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 their personal data being used on ad-supported versions of the platforms.