The Meta American group, which in particular has Facebook and Instagram, announced Friday that “would no longer allow political ads” on its platforms from October in the European Union, questioning the “impracticable” rules of Brussels.
“This is a difficult decision”, but the goal “will no longer allow political and electoral ads and in social issues on its platforms in the European Union, due to the impracticable requirements” of a European regulation dedicated to the transparency of political advertising, said Mark Zuckerberg’s company in a press release.
Wind goal that faces European legislation
Meta, who regularly criticizes European legislation, points out the “important operational challenges” and “legal uncertainties” of the rules on political advertising.
Adopted in 2024 with the full entry in force in October 2025, this European regulation aims to guarantee greater transparency of the ads and protect themselves from foreign interference as the approach to the elections.
The legislation requires platforms in particular to clearly inform political ads and indicate who they are financed. The profile of personal data related to ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, as well as the use of minors related data is prohibited.
Google had already taken this option in 2024
The European Union took its measures after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018.
This British consulting firm had collected, without authorization and without their knowledge, the personal data of dozens of millions of Facebook users, then used for political orientation during the electoral campaign of the United States in 2016 and the referendum Brexit.
In its press release, Meta emphasizes that it is not the first company to say that it will resign from political ads in the EU, since Google did so at the end of 2024.
“Our decision refers only to the European Union”, “we continue to think that online political advertising is an essential element of modern politics,” says the US company.
A legal arsenal in highly criticized Europe
Their Facebook and Instagram platforms have about 261 million and 272 million monthly users in the European Union, respectively.
The EU has a strengthened legal arsenal to supervise large technological companies, which openly criticizes.
The giant of US social networks announced in early July to dispute a fine of 200 million euros inflicted by the European Commission in April, for a crime of the rules for the use of personal data.
Facebook and Instagram are also subject to several surveys within the framework of European legislation on digital services (DSA).
In an approach movement with Donald Trump, Mark Zuckerberg had accused the EU of censorship in January and compared European fines with customs duties.
Source: BFM TV
