Social networking apps owned by Meta, like Facebook and Instagram, could be banned in the UK and across Europe.

Following a disagreement with Europe over data protection rules, Mark Zuckerberg has threatened to withdraw “core services” from the continent.

Meta has quietly issued a warning that if Europe does not allow it to execute “transatlantic data transfers” it will be forced to shut down its services.

This entails moving people’s personal information from Europe’s safe systems, which are strictly regulated, to the United States.

Meta stated in an annual report to a US government agency that if a new framework is not implemented, the company will “probably” have to discontinue delivering its “most significant products and services”

While Meta maintains that exchanging data between countries and regions is essential to its services, the European Court of Justice has barred it from doing so from July 2020. This is primarily to safeguard European users from having their personal information shared or sold without their consent.

However, this could lead to a further drop in the company’s shares as Meta recently lost about $29 billion following the release of its first quarterly decline in its user activity in company history.

Facebook reported 1.929 billion daily users in the fourth quarter, down from 1.93 billion users the previous quarter.

Mark Zuckerberg’s personal net worth dropped by approximately $29.7 billion, leaving him at $84.8 billion according to Forbes’ real-time calculations.

However, Zuckerberg blamed the decline in user activity in part on increased competition from rival platforms such as TikTok.

During the Facebook earnings call on Wednesday afternoon, Zuckerberg stated, “People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly.”