The Financial Times reported on Thursday that executives at Meta Platforms Inc are discussing a potential company-wide ban on political advertising in Europe.
This is due to concerns that Facebook and Instagram may not be able to comply with upcoming EU regulations aimed at online campaigns.
In February, EU lawmakers agreed to implement tougher rules on targeted political advertising in order to combat misinformation during elections.
The proposed rules would require U.S. tech giants to provide more data on their targeted political ads. Also they could face fines up to 4% of their global turnover for breaches.
The Financial Times reports that Metaverse executives are concerned that the EU’s definition of political ads could be overly broad, potentially resulting in the rejection of all paid-for political campaigns on the company’s sites.
Last December, the European Commission warned Meta’s parent company, Facebook, that it was breaching EU antitrust laws by distorting competition in markets for online classified advertising and abusing its dominant position.
