Currently, Facebook users outside the United States and Canada fall under the terms of services agreed with the company's international headquarters in Ireland. This means that around 1.9 billion Facebook Inc. users around the world would be protected by the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), once it takes effect on 25 May 2018. However, Facebook is about to make changes which will decrease this number. Facebookconfirmed to the Reuters its intentions to reduce its exposure to the GDPR, which allows European regulators to fine companies for collecting or using personal data without consent. These changes will directly affect Facebook users in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America, who will not fall under the DGPR protection. According to Reuters, this will remove potential liability for Facebook, since the new EU law allows fines of up to 4 percent of global annual revenue for infractions. Regarding these changes, the company said: 'We apply the same privacy protections everywhere, regardless of whether your agreement is with Facebook Inc or Facebook Ireland.'. Earlier this month, Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, stated the company would apply the EU law globally 'in spirit', but did not commit to it as the standard for Facebook across the world. Technology policy researcher at University College London, Michael Veale, said that in practice this means: 'The 1.5 billion affected users will not be able to file complaints with Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner or in Irish courts. Instead they will be governed by more lenient U.S. privacy laws.'.