Meta begins training AI using EU citizens’ data, but the fight’s not over yet

By Gintaras Radauskas for CyberNews
Wednesday, May 28, 2025

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Meta can train its AI models using the public posts of European Instagram and Facebook users. But an expert tells Cybernews that a German court's decision to reject an injunction against the company doesn’t mean there will be no restrictions.

An unenviable situation?

“This is just the very beginning of the story. Whilst it’s quite unlikely that EU authorities will impose a flat ban on AI training with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of European residents, some important restrictions may come into play,” Dr. Ilia Kolochenko, CEO of cybersecurity company Immuniweb, told Cybernews.

In his view, the current opt-out method used by Meta is likely to be replaced by an opt-in method, explicitly asking users whether they wish to do their data to be used for AI training prior to the activation of the process.

“Second, children may be excluded from the AI training program altogether, or strict parental consent will be required,” said Kolochenko.

“Third, the most problematic thing is the exercise of data correction and data deletion rights by data subjects: once erroneous PII is ingested by a large language model, it’s extremely difficult to remove or correct it. This is where Meta will probably face the biggest challenge in complying with GDPR.”

According to the expert, Meta might also need to deal with sophisticated pre-screening of users' posts that contain illicit materials, calls to violence, or discrimination, as well as posts that infringe copyright.

“In sum, Meta’s situation is currently quite unenviable,” Kolochenko told Cybernews. Read Full Article