Meta Withdraws Generative AI Services in Brazil Over Government Objections

Meta Platforms decided to suspend its AI services in Brazil after the Brazilian government objected to the tech company’s policies on AI and the use of personal data to train AI models.

According to Reuters, Meta announced its decision this Wednesday, and it will affect its 200 million users. Brazil’s audience represents Meta’s second-largest user base, after India.

Meta is in discussion with Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) and will not provide the AI tools in this country until both parties reach an agreement.

Earlier this month, the Brazilian government suspended Meta’s new privacy policy to feed its AI with users’ content right after it was announced. The ANPD required the tech company “to adapt its privacy policy to exclude the section related to the processing of personal data for generative AI training.”

According to the BBC, on July 2nd, the ANPD said they had to intervene over the “imminent risk of serious and irreparable damage, or difficulty repairing fundamental rights of the affected [account] holders”. The government agency gave Meta five days to comply or face daily fines of R$50,000 ($9,000).

Pedro Martins, Academic Coordinator at Data Privacy Brasil, told the BBC that the organization was especially concerned over the use of children’s and teenagers’ content with the BBC.

Meta considered the decision a “step backward for innovation” and said in a recent statement that they would address the authorities’ concerns. However, Brazil is not the first country to block Meta’s new AI policies, the European Union and the United Kingdom have also requested policy changes.

Meta announced in June that it had been working on possible multimodal AI models for Europe but recently confirmed to Axios that it will not proceed with this approach.

Governments aren’t the only organizations against Meta’s AI training policies. Apple also rejected the integration of Meta’s chatbot with iOS, and hundreds of thousands of artists have also decided to opt out of Meta’s platforms and join the new social media app for artists Cara.