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Meta will allow some Facebook and Instagram users to unlink their accounts as part of the platform's efforts to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) ahead of enforcement starting March 1.

In a blog , Meta's competition and regulatory director, Tim Lamb, wrote that Instagram and Facebook users in the EU, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland would be notified in the "next few weeks" about "more choices about how they can use" Meta's services and features, including new opportunities to limit data-sharing across apps and services.

Most significantly, users can choose to either keep their accounts linked or "manage their Instagram and Facebook accounts separately so that their information is no longer used across accounts." Up to this point, linking user accounts had provided Meta with more data to more effectively target ads to more users. The perk of accessing data on Instagram's widening younger user base, TechCrunch noted , was arguably the $1 billion selling point explaining why Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 .

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Three of the world’s biggest pornography sites will be hit with new regulatory curbs including stricter requirements on age verification, after EU regulators determined the adult platforms fell within the scope of a landmark law designed to police content online.

Xvideos, Pornhub, and Stripchat will be from April subject to the obligations of “very large online platforms” under the Digital Services Act (DSA), according to three people familiar with the move.

That designation applies to platforms with more than 45 million users and has so far been applied to tech groups such as Facebook, Wikipedia, and TikTok.

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Adobe has abandoned its proposed $20 billion acquisition of product design software company Figma, as there was “no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals” from UK and EU watchdogs.

The deal had faced probes from both the UK and EU competition regulators for fears it would have an impact on the product design, image editing and illustration markets.

Adobe refused to offer remedies to satisfy the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s concerns last week, according to a document published by the regulator on Monday, arguing that a divestment would be “wholly disproportionate.”

Enlarge / Users in the extended European Economic Area will soon be able to avoid most of the things that feel so exhausting about Windows 11 . (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Using Windows these days means putting up with many, many pitches to use and purchase other Microsoft products . Some are subtle, like the built-in Edge browser suggesting you use its "recommended settings" after each major update. Some are not so subtle, like testing a "quiz" that made some users explain why they're trying to quit the OneDrive app .

Those living in the European Economic Area (EEA) —which includes the EU and adds Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway—will soon get the volume turned down on their Windows 11 systems. To meet the demands of the European Commission's Digital Markets Act —slated to be enforced in March 2024—Microsoft must make its apps easier to uninstall, its default settings easier to change, and its attempts at steering people toward its services easier to avoid.

Microsoft writes in a blog post that many of these changes will be available in a preview update of Windows 11 (version 23H2) this month. Windows 10 will get similar changes "at a later date." A couple of changes affect all Windows 10 and 11 users:

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Apple has been dealt a blow in its €14.3 billion tax dispute with Brussels after an adviser to the EU’s top court said an earlier ruling over its business in Ireland should be shelved.

Giovanni Pitruzzella, advocate-general of the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, said on Thursday that a landmark decision quashing the EU’s order for Apple to pay €14.3 billion in back taxes to Ireland “should be set aside.”

Such opinions by advocates-general are non-binding but often influential in final judgments by the EU’s top court.

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Meta is preparing to charge EU users a $14 monthly subscription fee to access Instagram on their phones unless they allow the company to use their personal information for targeted ads.

The US tech giant will also charge $17 for Facebook and Instagram together for use on desktop, said two people with direct knowledge of the plans, which are likely to be rolled out in coming weeks.

The move comes after discussions with regulators in the bloc who have been seeking to curb the way big tech companies profit from the data they get from their users for free, which would be a direct attack on the way groups such as Meta and Google generate their profits.

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In the wake of Unity's sudden fee structure change announcement last week , a European trade group representing thousands of game developers is calling on governments to "update their regulatory framework" to curb what they see as a "looming market failure" caused by "potentially anti-competitive market behavior."

In an open letter published last week , the European Games Developer Federation goes through a lot of the now-familiar arguments for why Unity's decision to charge up to $0.20 per game install will be bad for the industry. The federation of 23 national game developer trade associations argues that the new fee structure will make it "much harder for [small and midsize developers] to build reliable business plans" by "significantly increas[ing] the game development costs for most game developers relying on [Unity's] services."

The organization also publicly worries about "professional game education institutions" that may need to update their curriculums wholesale if there is a mass exodus from Unity's engine. "Many young industry professionals who have built their career plans on mastering Unity’s tools [will be put] in a very difficult position."