While it does not rule out acting in the long term on disinformation, the European Commission suggested on Tuesday 9 April that it was not considering any regulatory action on the framework for political advertising.
This follows Facebook's decision to ban political party campaigns in countries where they do not have representatives going forward, and its calls for greater regulation of the Internet. To everyone's surprise, the head of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg, suggested at the end of March that Internet regulation should be changed by giving governments and regulators a more active role.
When asked about this, a Commission source replied that the institution had already done a lot with its September package to ensure the integrity of the elections (see EUROPE 12094/6). It also pointed out that the cooperation network had already met three times and that it also intended to meet after the elections to review the situation.
But it also indicated that the Commission does not intend to facilitate Facebook’s work by creating a single regulatory environment, since this competence lies with the Member States. “I doubt that with regard to political advertising in an electoral context, we can have a single regulatory environment”, said this source. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)