‘EU rules unworkable’: Meta says halting political advertising among bloc nations from October

Meta announced on Friday that it will be compelled to stop allowing political advertising across its platforms in the European Union starting in October. The company cited the EU’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation as being “unworkable."

Meta described this as a challenging decision driven by the substantial operational difficulties and legal ambiguities introduced by the TTPA rules. The company emphasised that these obligations impose an unsustainable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for both advertisers and platform operators within the EU.

According to Meta, these regulations will ultimately have a negative impact on European users.

“We believe that personalised ads are critical to a wide range of advertisers, including those engaged on campaigns to inform voters about important social issues that shape public discourse,” Meta said.

“Regulations, like the TTPA, significantly undermine our ability to offer these services, not only impacting effectiveness of advertisers’ outreach but also the ability of voters to access comprehensive information,” the company added.

“This is a difficult decision - one we’ve taken in response to the EU’s incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which introduces significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties,” it said.

The European Union legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation and which will apply from Oct. 10, was triggered by concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc.

The EU law requires Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much as well as which elections are being targeted or risk fines up to 6% of their annual turnover.

With inputs from agencies