Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta on Thursday began deactivating Instagram and Facebook accounts of Australian users under the age of 16 ahead of next week’s social media ban.

Australia passed a new law in 2024 that forces major social media platforms to block anyone under the age of 16 from accessing their services under penalty of hefty multi-million dollar fines for the platforms. The law will go into effect on Wednesday, December 10.

As Breitbart News reported in November, Meta began notifying Australian users aged 13-15 that their accounts would soon be shut down by the company in compliance with the country’s new law.

Both Guardian and the BBC reported that the company began the account deactivation process on Thursday ahead of next week’s deadline.

“While we are

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