Meta will no longer accept political, election or issue ads in EU
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Meta on Friday said starting in October it will no longer accept political, election or social issue ads in the European Union, in response to new regulation that it says will cause "significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties."
Why it matters: Google already said it would pull ads in the EU for the same reason. Campaigns and cause and appeal organizations will have a significantly harder time placing ads online without the ability to run them on the EU's two biggest digital platforms.
Zoom in: Meta's decision comes ahead of the incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation that requires digital political ads to be labeled with information about how the ad is targeted, who is paying for it, how much it costs and which election or cause it supports.
- The law, which goes into effect this October, has faced criticism from digital ad companies for being written too broadly to implement accurately.
- Meta says the law "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."
Yes, but: The decision won't prevent people or candidates in the EU from posting about and debating politics on its platforms, the company clarified in a statement.
Of note: Meta rival Google said last year the law is too broad, making it difficult to reliably identify political ads to label at scale.
- It also says there's a lack of reliable local election data available to apply to labels.
- Google has already pulled political ads from regions with cumbersome regulations, such as Brazil, France and Canada.
The big picture: Digital behemoths like Meta and Google years ago introduced their own political ad transparency tools and databases to help make it clear to the public which political and social issue advertisers are buying ads on its platforms, how much they're spending, who pays for the ads and who the ads target.
- They introduced these measures, in part, to get ahead of any regulations that might prove burdensome if introduced without the tech companies' input.
- Meta on Friday said the EU's new law causes unintended consequences in that it reduces competition and consumer choice.
