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Meta has decided to stop serving political, electoral, and social advertising on its platforms in the EU, rather than be subject to upcoming regulation.
In October, the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation will come into effect, aimed at countering foreign interference in elections.
It doesn’t affect the content of political advertisements or, for example, the conduct of political campaigns, which fall under the jurisdiction of each individual member state.
But it does cover the transparency and targeting of political advertising around elections, referendums, EU or member state legislation. Political ads must carry a transparency notice, and targeted ads will be allowed only if the individual has given specific consent.
And, to prevent foreign interference, advertising services to third country sponsors will be banned completely for three months before an election or referendum.
Meta claims that it already has strong measures in place – beyond what the law requires – to make sure that the political ads served on its platforms are genuine, and to share information about them transparently.
And the new rules, it said, are too burdensome.
“Unfortunately, the TTPA 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,” it said in a statement.
“For example, the TTPA places extensive restrictions on ad targeting and delivery which would restrict how political and social issue advertisers can reach their audiences and lead to people seeing less relevant ads on our platforms.”
And, as a result, when the legislation comes into force, the company plans to stop serving political, electoral and social issue ads on its platforms – which include Facebook and Instagram – in the EU altogether .
“Our decision is specific to the EU. Elsewhere, we will continue to provide our industry-leading tools that ensure authentic and transparent political advertising,” said the firm.
“It also won’t prevent people in the EU from continuing to debate politics on our services, or stop politicians, candidates and political office holders from producing and sharing political content organically. They just won’t be able to amplify this through paid advertising.”
Late last year, Google made a similar decision, saying that the TTPA introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms.
“For example, the TTPA defines political advertising so broadly that it could cover ads related to an extremely wide range of issues that would be difficult to reliably identify at scale,” it said in a statement.
“There is also a lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads related to any local, regional or national election across any of 27 EU Member States.”
It, too, plans to stop serving political advertising when the TTPA enters into force in October, while paid political promotions that qualify as political ads under the TTPA won’t be permitted on YouTube in the EU.
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