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EU users will be able to unlink their Instagram and Facebook accounts, as well as other Meta services ahead of the bloc\u2019s new Digital Markets Act (DMA) coming into force in March, the company has announced<\/a>. The changes will apply in the European Union, European Economic Area, and Switzerland, and notifications informing users of the change will appear in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The changes mean that EU users will be able to use many of Meta\u2019s services without their information being shared between them. People will be able to use Facebook Messenger as a stand-alone service without a Facebook account, for example, and if they\u2019ve previously linked their Facebook and Instagram accounts they\u2019ll be able to unlink them. (Meta\u2019s help page<\/a> notes that linking accounts like this is used for features like targeting ads, personalizing content recommendations, and sharing posts).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Less data linkage, but also less functionality<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Facebook Marketplace and Facebook Gaming users will also be able to use these services without them drawing information from their main Facebook accounts, but in both cases Meta says this will lead to reduced functionality. If you use Marketplace without it using your Facebook information, for example, you\u2019ll have to communicate with buyers and sellers over email rather than Facebook Messenger. Facebook Gaming users will be limited to single-player games if they unlink their Facebook information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Meta\u2019s news follows a similar announcement from Google, which said earlier this month<\/a> that it would let users stop the sharing of data between services like Search, Youtube, Google Maps, and Chrome. In both cases the changes are the result of the DMA, which fully takes effect on March 6th. Meta and Google\u2019s holding company Alphabet were among the list of six companies designated as \u201cgatekeepers\u201d under the DMA last September<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In addition to regulating how gatekeepers can share data between services, the DMA includes a broad range of rules that are designed to improve competition and level the playing field for businesses that rely on gatekeepers to offer their services. Other major changes that are expected in the EU as a result of the DMA include messaging services like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger being made interoperable with competitors, and Apple being forced to open up iOS to sideloading<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n