According to a report published by the Financial Times on Thursday, executives at Meta Platforms Inc. are considering instituting a blanket ban on political advertising across the entire company in Europe out of concern that Facebook and Instagram will be unable to comply with forthcoming EU regulations that target online campaigns.
In February, politicians from the EU reached a consensus on stricter regulations for targeted political advertising. The new laws are intended to combat disinformation during elections. The new regulations compel large internet companies in the United States to submit additional data on their targeted political advertisements, and violations might result in fines of up to 4% of the companies’ total annual revenue.
The new guidelines force digital firms to share more political data.
According to the newspaper, which cited two people briefed on the discussions, executives at Meta are concerned that the definition of political ads under EU plans will be excessively broad, making it easier for the company to refuse all paid-for political campaigns on its sites. This information was cited by two people.
The European Commission issued a warning to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, in December of last year, alleging that the company was in violation of EU antitrust regulations by abusing its dominant position and impeding competition in markets for online classified advertising.