Meta announced that it will stop showing political, election and social advertising on its platforms in the European Union countries from October 2025. This is reported by Engadget.
The reason for this decision was the new EU transparency rules on political advertising (TTPA), which, according to the company, create serious operational difficulties and legal uncertainty.
The European Union has introduced new regulations to minimize the risks of external influence on the electoral process, as well as to ensure the dissemination of information that could negatively affect voters' decisions.
The rules require advertisers to verify their identity, disclose the source of their advertising funding and their spending. They also impose restrictions on the use of personalized data for advertising targeting, and political advertising from sponsors outside the EU will be banned three months before elections or referendums.
Meta said the new restrictions would result in less relevant ads for users and make the process of placing ads too complicated. However, the company stressed that political content would remain available and could continue to be distributed on its platforms as long as it was not part of paid advertising.
Similar actions were previously taken by Google, which in 2024 also stopped showing political advertising in the EU, in particular on YouTube, in order to avoid fines for violating advertising legislation.