INSTAGRAM HAS LAUNCHED a High Court appeal against the record €405 million fine that it was issued by the Data Protection Commission earlier this month.

Meta owns and operates Instagram, and Meta Ireland started the legal proceedings yesterday.

The €405 million fine is the largest ever handed out by the DPC, surpassing a fine it issued to Meta-owned WhatsApp last year.

The fine was issued following an investigation into the way in which Instagram handled and processed teenagers’ personal data.

The inquiry began in September 2020 and looked at a process by which users aged between 13 and 17 were allowed to operate business accounts on Instagram.

In some cases this allowed, or required, children’s phone numbers and/or email addresses to be made public.

Commenting on the inquiry, the Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon said “the significance of the risks could be considerable”.

In a statement to The Journal, a Meta spokesperson said: “We engaged fully with the DPC throughout their inquiry, which focused on old settings that we updated over a year ago.

“We disagree with a number of aspects of the decision, including how the fine was calculated and we have now filed our appeal.”