By KELVIN CHAN
LONDON (AP) — Facebook and Instagram owner Meta declared Friday that it will stop all political advertising in the European Union by October, blaming legal uncertainty over new rules designed to increase transparency in election campaigns.
The social media giant declared in a blog post that it will no longer allow ads for political, electoral and social issues on its platforms, which also include Threads, starting in early October.
The company declared it was building the decision becaapply of the 27-nation EU’s “unworkable” Transparency and Tarreceiveing of Political Advertising regulations.
The rules introduce “significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties,” Meta declared.
It’s not the first Big Tech company to create such a shift. Google declared last year that it would stop serving EU applyrs political ads before the rules take effect, in an announcement that cited similar reasons.
Under the regulations, which are set to take effect on Oct. 10, platforms will have to label political ads, disclosing who paid for them, and what campaign, referconcludeum or legislative process they’re connected to. Ads will have to be preserved in a database, and they can only be tarreceiveed to applyrs under strict conditions.
The rules introduce “significant, additional obligations to our processes and systems that create an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty for advertisers and platforms operating in the EU,” Meta declared.
Violations can be hit with fines worth up to 6% of a company’s annual global revenue.
The rules are part of Brussels’ wider efforts to counter foreign influence and manipulation in elections, and dovetail with the bloc’s other regulations designed to protect citizens’ privacy and hold platforms more accountable for internet applyrs’ online safety. But those shifts clash with President Donald Trump’s administration, which has lashed out at the EU’s digital rulebuilding.
Meta declared its decision won’t affect applyrs who want to debate politics on its platforms or prevent politicians, candidates and officer holders from “sharing political content organically.”
“They just won’t be able to amplify this through paid advertising,” it declared.
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