Facebook, Meta discuss ban on political ad in Europe

The Financial Times reported on Thursday that Reuters- Meta Platforms Inc. was discussing a company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe because of concerns that Facebook and Instagram won't be able to comply with EU regulations on online campaigns.

In February, EU lawmakers agreed to tougher rules on targeted political advertising aimed at countering misinformation during elections. The proposed rules require U.S. tech giants to provide more data on their targeted political ads, with fines up to 4% of their global turnover for breaches.

Meta executives are concerned that the definition of political ads under EU plans will be excessively broad that it will be easier to refuse all paid-for political campaigns on the company's sites, according to two people briefed on the discussions.

In December of last December, the European Commission warned Facebook parent Meta that it was breaching EU antitrust laws by distorting competition in markets for online classified advertising and abusing its dominant position.