Facebook facing heat for sending EU data to US, which, like China, is accused of snooping

London: Facebook may be forced to stop sending data about its European users to the US, in the first major fallout from a recent court ruling that found some trans-Atlantic data transfers don’t protect users from American government snooping.

The social network said Wednesday that Ireland’s Data Protection Commission has started an inquiry into how Facebook shifts data from the European Union to the United States.

The news was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said Ireland’s data commission gave Facebook until mid-September to respond to a preliminary order to suspend the transfers.

The result could be that the US tech giant, which has data centres around the world, is forced to undertake a costly and complex revamp of its operations to ensure that European user data is kept out of the US.