Apparently, Meta has been facing lawsuits in Europe and India, along with other jurisdictions for its 2016 and 2021 updates on WhatsApp on the basis of its service and privacy policy.
In a statement provided on Wednesday, Meta wrote, "If we are unable to transfer data between and among countries and regions in which we operate, or if we are restricted from sharing data among our products and services, it could affect our ability to provide our services, the manner in which we provide our services or our ability to target ads, which could adversely affect our financial results."
The multinational conglomerate further noted that countries like India and Turkey are apparently considering enacting legislation that requires local data storage and processing or is considering doing so already.
These legislative laws “could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services, cause us to cease the offering of our products and services in certain countries, or result in fines or other penalties," the company said in Form 10-K.
The company has been under continuous legal and regulatory issues in a number of jurisdictions, one being India.
The Competition Commission of India is currently looking into the issue, investigating Meta for its alleged anti-competitive practices. Adding to this, the company is also facing lawsuits in regard to its unified payments interface (UPI) service WhatsApp Pay.
Amidst the ongoing investigations and legal actions, Amrita Mukherjee, Director, Legal, India operations, was purportedly fired by the corporation as part of a recent series of layoffs. The layoff has been a component of Meta's downsizing strategy, which was disclosed in March and will affect some 10,000 employees worldwide.
The issue is especially significant for Meta, since it has a weighty presence in India, with more than half a billion users utilizing its services.
The company's daily active users (DAUs) grew by 4% to 2 billion on average through December 2022 from the previous year, according to its annual report. The top three countries for DAU growth during that time were Bangladesh, the Philippines, and India.