Meta to suspend political advertising in the EU as transparency law looms

Meta will suspend political and social issue advertising on its platforms in the European Union starting in October.

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company announced the new policy change on Friday, citing legal uncertainty about the bloc’s new rules on political advertising.

The Silicon Valley-based social media giant is following in the footsteps of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which made the same decision in November.

The EU legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which will apply from October 10, was prompted by concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc.

The law requires Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much, as well as which elections are being targeted, or risk fines up to 6 percent of their annual turnover.

“From early October 2025, we will no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU,” Meta said in a blog post.

“This is a difficult decision – one we’ve taken in response to the EU’s incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which introduces significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties,” it said.

Meta said the EU rules would ultimately hurt Europeans.

“We believe that personalised ads are critical to a wide range of advertisers, including those engaged on campaigns to inform voters about important social issues that shape public discourse,” it said.