Meta Stock (META) Moves Lower Despite Winning AI Freedom in Germany

Tech giant Meta is now free to train its AI models with public data in Germany after a local court quashed an objection against it. However, its stock fell nearly 2% in early trading.

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A court in Cologne said it would not grant an injunction to stop Meta from training its AI models with Facebook and Instagram users’ posts brought by consumer rights group Verbraucherzentrale NRW.

Meta said last month it would train its AI models in the European Union with public posts of adults across its platforms, as well as with interactions that users have with its artificial intelligence. This is across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger.

Meta believes that its Meta AI service will be more effective if it understands how Europeans talk, their culture and history.

It said at the time that its users in the EU would be notified of the project and would be given the opportunity to opt out.

Consent Please

NRW had argued that Meta’s approach violated EU privacy laws and sent it a cease and desist letter on April 30. It wanted user consent rather than an opt-out strategy.

But it’s not all plain sailing for Meta.

It comes only days after the Irish Data Protection Authority said that Meta had agreed to implement measures and improvements, including updated transparency notices to users, easier-to-use objection forms, updated measures to protect users and updated risk assessments as part of its AI training.

The DPA has required Meta to compile a report on the issue in October this year.

In addition, users of Facebook and Instagram in Belgium, the Netherlands and the German state of Hamburg already have until May 2027 to object to their public data being used to train Meta’s tool.

Is META a Good Stock to Buy Now?

On TipRanks, META has a Strong Buy consensus based on 41 Buy, 3 Hold and 1 Sell rating. Its highest price target is $918. META stock’s consensus price target is $696.12 implying an 10.53% upside.

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