• by Colin Kirkland , Yesterday

In response to upcoming advertising regulations in the EU, Meta has announced that beginning in October, it will no longer allow political, electoral or social issue ads on its family of platforms in Europe.

“This is a difficult decision,” Meta wrote in a statement, referencing the EU's pending Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation.

The TTPA aims to “support open and fair political debate” by attempting to cut down on manipulation of information, foreign election interference and the misuse of users' personal data, according to EU regulators.

By October 10, digital ad platforms must meet certain transparency requirements to fulfill the TTPA's demands.

While the EU says that its obligations will not affect the content of political ads, platforms must show evidence of how political ads are targeted, as well as who funded each ad.

With regard to acceptable targeting and ad-delivery techniques, users must give “explicit and separate consent” for the use of their data in relation to the political ad in question, while personal data of minors cannot be used, nor can racial or ethnic data be used for profiling, among other requirements.

Furthermore, regulators have placed a ban on political advertising coming from sponsors from outside the EU in the 3 months leading up to an election or referendum in the region.

Upon hearing these demands, Meta determined it would be unable to comply. The company stated that its transparency tools have been capable of warding off interference in elections since 2018.

“The TTPA 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,” Meta says.

The tech giant sees the TTPA as “another threat to the principles of personalized advertising” that will “lead to people seeing less relevant ads” on its apps.