Robert Hart is a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and Senior Tarbell Fellow. Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Meta is bringing its “pay or consent” ad model to the UK after months of wrangling with regulators over the controversial policy. The update will force Instagram and Facebook users to pick between being served up personalized ads or shelling out for monthly subscriptions to ad-free versions.
Subscriptions start at £2.99 a month, around $4, for users logging in over the web, Meta said. Android and iOS users face steeper charges of £3.99 a month, around $5.33. Meta blames this on “the fees that Apple and Google charge.”
It’s an all or nothing approach, with users forced to either subscribe on all accounts or none. Each additional account garners another fee of either £2 or £3 a month.