CIVICUS discusses Facebook owner Meta’s political ad ban in the European Union (EU) with Filip Stojanovski, Director for Partnership and Resource Development at the Metamorphosis Foundation, a civil society organisation (CSO) that works to empower citizens and civil society to defend democracy.
The EU adopted its Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation in March 2024 with the intention of safeguarding democratic processes from disinformation. The regulation’s broad definition of ‘political advertising’ risks treating advocacy campaigns the same as electoral propaganda. Meta’s response has been to impose a complete ban on political and social issue advertising across the EU, citing implementation challenges. This sweeping approach threatens to silence legitimate civil society activity.