Meta announced it will stop selling political, electoral and social issue advertising across its platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) in the European Union starting in early October 2025[1][2].
The decision comes in response to the EU’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which takes effect October 10, 2025. Meta called the rules “unworkable,” citing “significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties”[2:1].
The TTPA requires platforms to:
- Label political ads with transparency information
- Disclose who paid for ads and their costs
- Show which elections or referendums ads target
- Maintain ads in a public database
- Follow strict conditions for user targeting[3]
Companies face fines of up to 6% of annual global revenue for violations[2:2]. Google made a similar move in late 2024, also announcing it would stop serving political ads to EU users before the rules take effect[4].
Meta emphasized that users can still discuss politics and politicians can share content “organically” on its platforms - they just cannot use paid advertising to amplify their messages[2:3].
Bloomberg - Meta to Stop Selling Political Ads in the EU, Citing Regulation ↩︎
AP News - Meta will cease political ads in European Union by fall ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Euronews - Meta halts political advertising in the EU due to ‘unworkable’ rules ↩︎
Economic Times - Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October ↩︎
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
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Come on, Zuckerberg, do what you said you’d do. Leave the EU. COME ON!! DO IT!!!
Also, Apple, you said you also wanted to leave because of the EU, right? DO IT!!!
Why are you still here?? Oh, turns out you can still make a fucking ton of money, huh? Also, if you left the EU, it would show the world WE DON’T NEED YOU. YOU SERVE NO PURPOSE, BUT TO MANIPULATE AND EXTORT FOR PROFIT.
Go Zuck a fuck, Zuck
Why should we believe them when they say they will stop? This is meta’s only real solid business model meta/facebook has found so far so I doubt laws factor into their thinking much.
What counts as ‘political’ ads, and does post visibility count as advertisement?
Im guessing they will stop official political parties and unions from buying ads, but you will still see ai slop “<politician> was just arrested, you won’t believe what he did!” Alongside a deepfake image.