Facebook is in the business of selling advertisement. When they sell advertisement in the EU, they must follow EU legislation, including GDPR. Mercedes Benz is

Facebook is in the business of selling advertisement. When they sell advertisement in the EU, they must follow EU legislation, including GDPR. Mercedes Benz is in the business of selling cars. When they sell cars in the US, they must follow US legislation. Nothing new in that. Different jurisdictions have always had different legislation, both online and offline. For a while, when the internet corporations were small, and most business and life interests were still offline, internet companies flew under the radar. The last 10-15 years, though, larger jurisdictions have very much asserted their influence online. Whereas some Brits don't care about privacy protection, many do. The British likely already have or will get their own privacy laws after Brexit, but it remains to be seen whether large corporations like facebook will respect those. When Britain was inside the EU, facebook risked billion euro fines. Outside of the EU, the risk of ignoring the rules is smaller. The latest move from facebook shows that they believe British users are now fair game. They can prey on them the same way they prey on Californian users.