Meta Halts Political Ads in the EU

Meta intends to suspend all political advertising in the European Union by October, citing legal uncertainties related to new regulations aimed at enhancing electoral campaign transparency.

According to AP, the social media giant announced that starting in October, it will no longer allow advertisements related to political, electoral, and social issues across its platforms, including Threads.

The company stated that this decision was made due to "ineffective" EU rules regarding transparency and targeting of political ads.

As per Meta, these regulations create "significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties".

This is not the first major tech company to take such a measure. Last year, Google announced it would cease showing political ads to EU users until these regulations came into force, citing similar reasons.

According to the rules set to take effect on October 10, platforms will be required to label political ads, indicating who funded them and which campaign, referendum, or legislative process they are associated with. Ads must be stored in a database and can only be targeted to users under strict conditions.

"These rules impose substantial additional obligations on our processes and systems, creating an unacceptable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU," Meta stated.

Violations could result in fines of up to 6% of the company's annual global revenue.

Meta asserted that its decision would not affect users wishing to discuss politics on its platforms and would not prevent politicians and candidates from "organically sharing political content".

"They just won’t be able to promote it through paid advertising," the statement read.