The European Union data watchdog has slammed Meta, parent company to Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, with a €390 million fine for illegally forcing users to accept personalised ads.

Meta was accused of breaching the data privacy of its users, coercing them to accept its terms of use which requires accessing their online activity before gaining access to the social networks.

Users who do not agree to these terms were automatically denied access to their social media accounts.

The EU data protection board claims that Meta forced users to accept the adverts by including its legal consent in the terms of agreement, in gross violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Meta was fined €210 million for breaching users’ data privacy on Facebook and €180 million for users on Instagram, totalling €390 million.

This is the latest addition to four other fines the company has gotten since 2021, which was prompted by official complaints from users since 2018 when the GDPR became effective.

Meta said they were disappointed and would appeal the fine in a statement on Wednesday.

“We strongly believe our approach respects GDPR, and we’re therefore disappointed by these decisions and intend to appeal both the substance of the rulings and the fines.”