Meta to stop running political ads on Facebook and Instagram in the EU

Social media giant Meta announced today that it will stop running political, electoral or social issue advertising in the EU from October, instead of complying with the bloc's transparency rules for political advertising. 

EU-wide rules on the transparency of political advertising come into effect from October, with the aim of curbing information manipulation and foreign interference during elections, according to a Council announcement on the agreement last year.

The regulation obliges online publishers of political advertisements to disclose whether an ad is paid for by a political actor to make it easier for citizens to recognise political marketing. It also requires disclosure of whether the ad was targeted using personal data.

Meta is sidestepping all these requirements, per its announcement today, as the company says it will no longer allow political, electoral or social issue ads in the EU. It defines these types of ads in its terms and conditions for different territories. Meta said the change would also apply in other "European territories", including the UK.

The company is blaming its decision to end political ads on the EU's Regulation – claiming it's too restrictive and burdensome for advertisers. "Unfortunately, the TTPA [the political ads transparency regulation] introduces significant additional obligations to our processes and systems that create an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU," Meta wrote.

It said the move won't change any of its other policies for people in the EU as regards debating politics. Nor will it stop politicians from posting content on its social networks. However political actors would not be able to pay Meta to amplify such content.

Responding to Meta's announcement, liberal lawmaker Sandro Gozi, the rapporteur for the EU's regulation on political advertising, said it "confirms a deep allergy to transparency, data protection and democratic accountability." "They [Meta] pretend to fight disinformation, but in reality they are making money from it," he added.

Last year, Google also announced that it would stop serving political ads in the EU before the regulation came into effect. It blamed the law for having an overly broad definition of "political advertisement" for it to be able to comply, hence choosing to stop running such ads across the bloc.

But one question both companies' actions raises is how effective their own – typically automated – ad review systems are at detecting political, electoral or social issue ads and stopping them from being distributed. Any political ads that do slip through would automatically breach the EU's transparency rules given their ad systems do not provide these disclosures.

In Meta's case, this is not the first time it's blamed EU laws for forcing it to change its ad behaviour: the tech giant is currently facing Digital Markets Act enforcement over its pay-or-consent advertising model.

(nl)