Short answer: Meta’s European AI-training plan is no longer merely “about to start.” After pausing its original proposal in June 2024, Meta announced a revised rollout in April 2025. The documented scope covers certain public content shared by adults on Facebook and Instagram and people’s interactions with Meta AI. Meta says ordinary private messages and public account content from under-18 users are excluded, subject to the exceptions and safeguards described below. European users can object, but the available sources do not establish that an objection removes data from a model that has already been trained.
What changed, and what is the status now?
Meta first told Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) in March 2024 that it planned to train a large language model using public adult content from Facebook and Instagram in the EU/EEA. It explained the proposal publicly on June 10, 2024, then agreed to pause it on June 14 after the DPC raised concerns. The DPC later sought Europe-wide guidance from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), which issued a general opinion on AI and personal-data processing in December 2024.
In April 2025, Meta announced that it would proceed with a revised plan. The DPC described May 27, 2025, as Meta’s planned start date. As of August 2026, the accurate description is that the program resumed after the regulatory pause; it is not accurate to describe it as a future plan that has not begun. The DPC’s 2025 annual report says Meta had to provide a report after a training run using EU/EEA data, while stressing that the regulator had not approved the processing or formally found it GDPR-compliant.
Meta’s April 2025 announcement and the DPC’s May 2025 statement describe the revised arrangement.
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What content is potentially used?
| Content or activity | What the published descriptions say |
|---|---|
| Public Facebook posts | Included in the DPC’s description of public adult content covered by the plan. |
| Public Instagram posts | Included in the DPC’s description of public adult content covered by the plan. |
| Public comments and other content made public | Potentially in scope when shared publicly by an adult on a Meta product. |
| Questions and other interactions with Meta AI | Meta says interactions submitted to its AI features may be used to improve or train its models. |
| Ordinary private messages | Meta says private messages between friends and family are not used for training unless someone deliberately shares those messages with a Meta AI feature. |
| Public account content from users under 18 | Meta says this content is excluded from the European training plan. |
This is narrower than saying “Meta trains on everything users post.” A post can be public and still contain personal data protected by the GDPR. Conversely, sending information directly to an AI feature is a separate route by which information may be processed; it is not the same as a public post being considered for training.
Meta’s private-message and under-18 statements are company policies, not a regulator’s finding that every category of data is legally risk-free. The relevant company explanation is in Meta’s April 2025 announcement.
Who is covered?
Meta’s announcement speaks about people based in the EU. The DPC’s regulatory description repeatedly refers to adults and public content across the EU/EEA, which is the appropriate scope when discussing the regulator’s remit. Do not automatically treat the United Kingdom as part of the same legal category: Meta discussed engagement with the UK Information Commissioner separately in its 2024 explanation.
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The exclusions and safeguards described by Meta concern account age, audience settings, filtering and de-identification. They do not mean that public material is anonymous, nor that a user controls material another person has posted about them.
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- March 2024: Meta informed the DPC of a plan to train an AI model using public adult Facebook and Instagram content in the EU/EEA.
- June 10, 2024: Meta publicly explained why it wanted European public data for AI development.
- June 14, 2024: Meta agreed to pause after concerns from the DPC.
- September 2024: The DPC asked the EDPB for Europe-wide guidance on the GDPR questions raised by AI training.
- December 2024: The EDPB issued an opinion setting out general assessment criteria, not a Meta-specific approval.
- April 2025: Meta announced a revised rollout, with notices and an objection form.
- May 27, 2025: The DPC identified this as Meta’s planned start date for training under the revised approach. That date should not be presented as proof that a full training run was completed.
Sources: the DPC’s June 2024 pause statement, the DPC’s 2025 statement, and Meta’s June 2024 explanation.
What safeguards were added?
Before proceeding, Meta made changes described by the DPC, including:
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- More detailed transparency notices and a longer notice period.
- A simpler objection form available in the app and across European jurisdictions.
- Information explaining that users could change published posts from public to private.
- More than a year of access to the objection form.
- De-identification measures, dataset filtering and output filters.
- Updated risk assessments and GDPR documentation.
These measures describe controls around the processing; they are not a certification that the legal basis is settled. The DPC’s 2025 annual report says the regulator continued monitoring and retained the ability to take further action.
Why does Meta say it wants European content?
Meta’s stated argument is that models trained without local European material may perform less well with regional languages and dialects, local references, humor, sarcasm, colloquialisms and country-specific trends. It says public European content should make Meta AI more useful to people and businesses in Europe.
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That is Meta’s justification, not an independent conclusion that the processing is necessary or proportionate under the GDPR. The company’s reasoning appears in its June 2024 explanation and April 2025 announcement.
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Why is the plan controversial under the GDPR?
“Public” does not mean “outside data-protection law.” A public post may identify a person, reveal health or political information, expose a location, or contain information about someone else. The regulatory questions include Meta’s legal basis, transparency, data minimization, retention and safeguards, as well as how people can exercise their rights.
Meta has argued that its approach fits a legitimate-interest framework. That is Meta’s position, not a final legal ruling. The DPC engaged extensively, required changes and allowed the revised rollout to proceed, but it expressly did not approve the processing or declare it GDPR-compliant. The EDPB opinion supplied general criteria rather than a case-specific green light.
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The verified process described by Meta and the DPC is notification-led rather than a universal, permanent menu path:
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- Look for Meta’s in-app or email notice about AI training.
- Open the link to the objection form.
- Submit the objection for the account concerned.
- Review Facebook and Instagram audience settings separately, especially for older posts.
The DPC said the form was intended to work in-app and in all European jurisdictions, with access for more than a year. Interface labels can vary by country, device, account type and app version, so an old screenshot or 2024 link should not be treated as a current instruction.
What making a post private does—and does not do
Changing a post’s audience from public to a restricted audience can reduce the chance that the post will be included in future training, and the DPC specifically identified that change as a user control. It can also reduce ordinary public exposure.
- It does not prove that copies, screenshots or prior indexing have disappeared.
- It does not change posts or comments made by another person.
- It does not necessarily remove a post from a training run that has already occurred.
- It does not stop every kind of data processing by Meta.
- It can reduce discoverability and reach, which may matter to creators, community groups and businesses.
There is no verified basis in the cited sources for promising that an objection or privacy-setting change untrains an existing model or retroactively deletes all processed material.
A practical privacy checklist
- Submit the objection form if you do not want eligible public adult content used to the extent Meta honors the objection.
- Audit older public posts, comments and profile information; audience settings may differ between Facebook and Instagram.
- Consider making sensitive professional, health, family, political or creative material non-public.
- Do not put information into Meta AI that you would not want the feature to process; intentionally sharing a private message with an AI feature is covered by a different policy path.
- Review privacy controls periodically, because audiences and product settings can change.
The bottom line for EU and EEA users
The 2024 pause did not end Meta’s European AI-training effort. Meta resumed a revised program in 2025 covering specified public adult content and Meta-AI interactions, while stating that ordinary private messages and under-18 public account content are excluded. Users have an objection mechanism and can make posts private, but neither option is documented as a guaranteed way to erase data from a completed training run. The DPC’s oversight remains active, and its engagement is not a declaration that Meta’s processing complies with the GDPR.
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