On Monday 10 January, the European Commission will present, its proposal on transparency of online political advertising (see EUROPE 12840/5) to MEPs in the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). This proposal, which is part of a package of other measures aimed at strengthening democracy and the integrity of elections (see EUROPE 12840/4), was unveiled by the Commission on 25 November.
This proposal seeks to make political advertisements identifiable and information on stakeholders or financing easily accessible.
In addition, clear information on the basis of which category of people is targeted should be included in advertisements.
Furthermore, the Commission’s proposal requires that advertisements mention the groups of people targeted and the criteria and methods for amplifying political advertising.
The Commission also wants EU Member States to be required to introduce “proportionate and dissuasive” financial penalties for content that does not comply with the rules. This task, it is explained in the proposal, could be left to national authorities.
“Elections must not be a competition of opaque and non-transparent methods. People must know why they are seeing an ad, who paid for it, how much, what micro-targeting criteria were used. New technologies should be tools for emancipation and not for manipulation”, said the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, on 25 November last year.
The aim of this text, which is to complement the rules set out in the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 12853/3), is to provide a clear framework for online political advertising in the run-up to the next European elections in 2024.
See the proposal: https://bit.ly/30YzBw5 (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)