On Monday, Meta announced that it will be offering paid subscriptions to Europeans for ad-free use of Instagram and Facebook in November. The American giant thus intends to comply with the RGPD, which requires it to ask for their consent before presenting them with targeted advertising. Users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein “will have the choice of continuing to use both social networks free of charge” with personalized ads, “or subscribing to stop seeing ads”.
Each subscriber will have to pay 9.99 euros per month if they pay via a computer, or 12.99 euros if they pay via mobile applications. And from March 1, each additional account will add 6 to 8 euros to the monthly bill. What will users of these networks do? We asked them.
The least we can say is that the news isn’t very appealing. Or not at all: all the people who responded to our call for testimonials will be staying with the free version. I wouldn’t pay a cent to go on Facebook,” says Michel, who has set up a group on the platform to help people with disabilities. It’s totally scandalous and inappropriate. Philippe is adamant – “I’ll never pay for a social network! -while Françoise expresses her weariness – “there’s no way I’m going to take out ANOTHER subscription just to avoid ads….”. And while Jean-Jacques says “stop the one-upmanship”, Mylène points out that “life is expensive enough as it is”.
More resistant, some are even thinking of saying stop. ” It’s either the free version or account deletion,” Laurence angrily declares. ” I’m ready to leave the networks if one day payment becomes compulsory,” continues Gilles. And Mokpsy goes even further: “I’m simply going to close my accounts, because in practical terms, they’re useless!
“We don’t get anything for free anymore”.
Others won’t go for the paid version, but with less rancor. I don’t mind the ads,” says Vanessa, “so I’ll stick with the free version. I use Facebook for entertainment, not business,” she explains. Apolline continues: “I don’t use Instagram, only Facebook I find useful, so advertising, why not, as long as it doesn’t become polluting”.
I don’t know,” concludes Ryan. Paying not to see ads isn’t right, because they’ve been forced on us. But, he concedes, “I understand that nothing is free these days”..