On Friday, 25 July, the group Meta (parent company of Facebook and Instagram) announced that starting in October, it would “no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU”.
In a press release, Meta blames the “unworkable requirements and legal uncertainties introduced by the EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation” (see EUROPE 12840/5).
The regulation in question, on the transparency and targeting of political advertising, aims to combat information manipulation and foreign interference in elections; it came into force in April 2024.
It notably requires online platforms and social networks to clearly label political advertisements and to indicate the source of their funding. Most of its provisions will become fully applicable this coming 10 October.
The company believes that it already has “tools which provide more transparency for ads about politics, elections and social issues than any other platform, on or offline, as well as other extensive safeguards”.
According to the American company, this piece of European legislation 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”.
Facebook and Instagram are also the subject of several investigations under the Digital Services Act (DSA) (see EUROPE 13411/1). (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)