Despite the temporary exemptions promised to the President of the European Parliament, it will still be impossible to post political advertisements for the European elections on Facebook. This is apparent from a letter from the Secretary General of the European Commission, Martin Selmayr, dated 5 May.
The case dates back to the end of March, when the American social networking giant announced its intention to ban political advertising by parties in countries where they did not have legal representation, which was in order to prevent any interference in the European elections (see EUROPE 12225/24). Very quickly, European political parties and non-governmental organisations protested against this decision and wrote to both the social network and the European Commission, following which representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament and EU Council wrote to Facebook to express their concerns (see EUROPE 12238/13). At the time, the Commission repeated over and over again that this measure was not included in the code of good practice against disinformation and that it was a commercial choice that Facebook had made. The case was believed to have been heard on 18 April, when Facebook's Vice President of Communications, Nick Clegg, wrote to just the President of the European Parliament to propose a temporary waiver from 25 April to 26 May (see EUROPE 12240/8).
Martin Selmayr's version
However, less than 20 days before the election, it seems that such an exemption has not yet been applied in respect of the European institutions. In a letter to a series of NGOs denouncing the impact of Facebook's new measures on their campaign to encourage people to vote, the Secretary General of the European Commission, Martin Selmayr, has made no secret of his irritation. "So far, we have not received a clear indication that the European Commission would be exempted from the one-country approach for political advertising," he said, stressing that the dialogue was still ongoing. He added that he regretted that "non-governmental organizations face obstacles in using Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Instagram" and he invited them to raise their concerns with the social network.
Nick Clegg's version
In a meeting with journalists on 26 April, Nick Clegg explained that the social network had been "open" to providing a temporary exemption for a "prescribed list of (particular) groups (and) European institutions". But that it needed the "consent of those bodies who have the primary legal responsibility for the conduct of these elections; namely, the national electoral administrations”.
However, the elections are less than twenty days away and it will soon no longer be worth pursuing the process. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)