Former Meta lobbyist named DPC Commissioner: Meta now officially regulates itself

National Administrative Procedures and DPA inactivity According to reports in the Irish Times and RTE, Niamh Sweeney, a former senior Meta lobbyist, is set to join the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) as a commissioner in October. The DPC is the EU lead privacy regulator for most US Big Tech (such as Google, Microsoft or Meta) and was already notoriously pro-business. Prior to being entrusted with the responsibility of regulating US Big Tech, Sweeney spent more than 6 years at Meta. For 3.5 of those years, she was head of public policy at Facebook, Ireland, before becoming director of public policy for Europe at WhatsApp. With this appointment, the Irish government does not even pretend to care about enforcing EU law anymore. Press release by the DPCLink to a news story of RTE (the Irish Public Broadcaster)Link to Mrs Sweeney's LinkedIn ProfileDPC was so far "secretly" in bed with US Big Tech. For years, the Irish DPC has de facto not enforced the GDPR against US Big Tech. While