Meta Fined €251-M For 2018 Data Breach

European Union regulators imposed fines totaling €251 million on Meta, Facebook’s parent company, following an investigation into a 2018 data breach that exposed millions of user accounts, Euronews and APTN reported.

The breach affected approximately 29 million user accounts globally, including 3 million in Europe. I Photo: mkhmarketing Flickr

Ireland's Data Protection Commission, which oversees Meta due to its regional headquarters in Dublin, issued the penalties after hackers exploited bugs in the platform’s code to steal access tokens — digital keys allowing users to remain logged in without re-entering passwords.

The breach affected approximately 29 million user accounts globally, including 3 million in Europe, according to the Irish watchdog. Initial reports in 2018 estimated 50 million accounts were compromised.

Under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Meta was found to have committed multiple violations, leading to administrative penalties and reprimands.

“This decision relates to an incident from 2018. We took immediate action to resolve the issue as soon as it was identified,” Meta said in a statement, adding that it plans to appeal the decision.