EU: Google and Meta suspend political advertising amid new regulatory requirements

Leading global digital platforms Google and Meta have announced that they will stop placing political ads on the territory of the European Union. The decision is related to the entry into force of a new pan-European regulation regulating transparency and methods of targeting political campaigns in the online environment.

According to official statements of the companies, the main reasons were operational difficulties and high legal uncertainty caused by the requirements of the new legislation. The document, adopted as part of the EU's digital transparency strategy, obliges technology platforms to clearly label political advertising, indicate the customers and amounts spent on placement, as well as the goals of campaigns, including specific elections or referendums.

In addition, companies are required to maintain comprehensive documentation on advertising activities and disclose the targeting methods used. Violation of these regulations can result in a fine of up to 6 percent of the company's global annual turnover, which makes compliance with the regulations particularly important for international IT corporations.

According to the new definition, political advertising includes not only direct messages from politicians or parties, but also any content that potentially affects the electoral behavior of citizens. This includes information that can influence the results of elections, referendums, or change public attitudes on political and social issues.

Google has identified key technical obstacles to meeting the new obligations, including the need to take into account the specifics of the EU's 27 national jurisdictions. The requirements for verifying election data and collecting consent to the processing of users ' personal information were particularly time-consuming. The regulation also restricts targeting based on sensitive criteria, including political views and religious beliefs, which radically changes the standard approaches to setting up advertising campaigns.

Meta, in turn, pointed out the excessive complexity of the new rules and the potential risks of legal uncertainty for all participants in the advertising process-from platforms to advertisers. According to the company, from October 2025, the placement of political, social and election advertising in EU countries on all Meta-owned platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, will be completely stopped.

Back in 2023, Meta restricted the use of AI tools in a political context, banning their use by political campaigns in order to reduce the risks of disinformation. The new decision effectively fixes the strategy of complete demarcation of digital political activity at the level of the whole of Europe.

Given the global scale of both platforms and the EU's role as a key digital market, this decision may set a precedent for other jurisdictions considering tougher regulation of political advertising on the Internet.