Facebook Inc. today filed a legal challenge in Ireland over recent regulatory steps taken by the country’s privacy watchdog, which is scrutinizing how the social network processes its users’ personal data.

The matter concerns a July ruling by the European Union’s top court that struck down a legal framework known as the EU-US Privacy Shield. Facebook relied on the framework to enable its practice of transferring data of users in the European Union to the U.S. for processing. 

As a result of the July ruling, those data transfers now stand on uncertain legal ground, which is why Facebook has drawn scrutiny from Ireland’s privacy watchdog. 

The social network was one of about 5,000 organizations that depended on the US-EU Privacy Shield to move data across the Atlantic. Now that the framework is no longer in force, the social network is still bringing EU users’ data stateside but using a different legal mechanism known as Standard Contractual Clauses, or SCCs. The legal dispute stems from the fact that it’s not yet fully clear if SCCs may be used for the kind of data transfers to the US-EU Privacy Shield permitted.

Facebook disclosed earlier this week that Ireland’s privacy watchdog had opened an inquiry into its transmission of EU users’ data to the U.S. The watchdog, the company said, “suggested that SCCs cannot in practice be used for EU-US data transfers.” A Wall Street Journal report from Wednesday claimed that the social network was also given a preliminary order to suspend user data transfers to the U.S.

The legal challenge Facebook filed today seeks a judicial review of the policy adopted by the Ireland’s privacy watchdog, a review the social network hopes could help avoid a disruption to its data operations. More specific details have yet to emerge.

Facebook only said in a statement to CNBC that “a lack of safe, secure and legal international data transfers would have damaging consequences for the European economy. We urge regulators to adopt a pragmatic and proportionate approach until a sustainable long-term solution can be reached.”

If Facebook is forced to halt the transfer of EU users’ information to the U.S., the social network may have to shift internal workloads that rely on this information to European data centers. Such a development may have an impact on the company’s core advertising business, which relies on user data to serve up targeted ads. 

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