It must become clearer for European Union citizens where political advertisements – particularly those on social media – come from and who paid for them, according to an agreement reached with the European Parliament on Monday evening.
EU legislators reached a provisional deal on new rules to make election and referenda campaigns more transparent and resistant to interference. The new rules would regulate (online) political ads, while also providing a framework for political actors to advertise more easily across the EU.
"This is a major step in protecting our elections and achieving digital sovereignty in the EU. Citizens will be able to easily spot political advertising online and who stands behind it," said MEP Sandro Gozi in a press release.
In recent years, political advertising has shifted largely online, and existing national rules for regulating ads and/or preventing abuses are no longer sufficient. As several Member States have already drawn up laws or intend to legislate in this area, the fragmentation of rules across the EU has detrimental effects on both voters and advertisers.
Following the money
"The new rules will make it harder for foreign actors to spread disinformation and interfere in our free and democratic processes. We also secured a favourable environment for transnational campaigning in time for the next European Parliament elections," Gozi added.
Political ads would have to be clearly labelled, to make it clear that they are indeed advertising political messages. Additionally, the ads will be kept in a publicly accessible database (set up by the Commission) containing all online political advertisements and related information, for up to seven years.
The rules would ensure that it is clear who is behind a particular ad and who paid for it. This would make it easier for citizens, authorities and journalists to find out who is financing an ad, their place of establishment, the amount paid, and the origin of the financing, among other details.
Additionally, in the three months before an election or referendum, entities from non-EU countries would be banned from sponsoring political advertising in the EU. This should limit non-EU sponsors from interfering in European democratic processes.
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It would also be forbidden to send targeted political messages based on someone's personal data (ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, for example), as only the personal data explicitly provided for online political advertising can be used by providers to target users. In practice, this means that social media users will have to give specific permission for their data to be kept for sending political advertisements.
Internal communications – such as newsletters from political parties, foundations or other non-profit bodies to their members, for example – are not considered political advertising, meaning they will not be subject to additional privacy rules.
Companies, associations or institutions committing repeated violations against these new rules could be sanctioned in line with the Digital Services Act, meaning penalties could go up to 6% of the ad provider's annual income or turnover.
The text has yet to be formally adopted before the rules can enter into force. After that, the intention is to roll them out as soon as possible.
