Facebook and Instagram are resorting to scare tactics to convince iOS users to allow the companies to track them.

The latest version of iOS 14 forces apps to ask for permission before tracking users. Apple has framed the feature in the context of protecting user privacy and, just as importantly, giving users control over their own data and how it is used. As a company that charges for the vast majority of its products and services, Apple does not view its customers as the product, and doesn’t need to sell its users’ data to make money.

In contrast, Facebook, Instagram and other social media companies view their users as their main product, profiting off the wholesale monetization of their data. Facebook has made no bones about its opposition to Apple’s latest iOS privacy move, and is now resorting to scare tactics to convince iOS users to give them permission to track them and continue profiting off of them.

In the most recent notification asking for permission, Facebook and Instagram’s iOS apps imply that, without permission to track, the apps may not remain free. Ashkan Soltani, a technology reporter and former Obama White House advisor, was the first to report on the change.

NOTE: The Internet existed ‘free of charge’ well before the ‘ad supported web’ and will continue well after…#Adtech’s revisionist history that ‘big tech’ brought you the web is total fiction.https://t.co/hY9tz9uarT pic.twitter.com/qpSnAbn5nE

— ashkan soltani (@ashk4n) April 30, 2021