Meta, Facebook’s parent company, will stop political ad sales and displays in the European Union beginning October due to the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) legislation. Concerns have been raised about the law’s complexity and its effect on personalized advertising. The TTPA requires extensive transparency for political ads, including clear labeling, sponsor disclosure, and data usage consent.
The company stated that the new requirements present significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties. Meta finds the TTPA’s regulations concerning ad targeting and delivery to be restrictive, affecting political and social issue advertisers’ ability to engage with their audiences effectively. This may result in users encountering less relevant ads on Meta’s platforms.
Despite efforts to address concerns with policymakers, Meta has decided to either modify its services to comply with the law, at the risk of not meeting advertisers’ and users’ needs, or to discontinue political, electoral, and social issue ads in the EU. This move is seen as a threat to the principles of personalized advertising.
The TTPA, enforced by the European Commission in 2024, emphasizes transparency for political ads. It obliges companies selling such ads to provide clear labels, details of sponsors, relevant election or referendum information, ad costs, and targeting methods. Additionally, the law mandates that data collected for political ads can only be utilized with explicit consent and prohibits the use of specific sensitive personal data for profiling.
In line with this, Google has also announced its decision to halt political ad sales in the EU before October, citing operational challenges and legal ambiguities arising from the legislation.
