The EU Commission is taking measures to contain political advertising on platforms like Facebook. Algorithms used on platforms like Facebook and Instagram evaluate posts based on engagement rather than relevance, leading to the success of polarizing disinformation and divisive political campaigns.
The meta-whistleblower Frances Haugen confirmed the danger posed by non-transparent algorithms in major social media platforms, especially for elections. Her internal documents from Meta revealed that the company has long known about the issue but is barely doing anything about it.
The EU Commission presented a draft of a special law supplementing the Digital Services Act (DSA) a few weeks after Haugen’s hearing. The “Regulation on the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising” aims to minimize disinformation, maximize transparency, and prevent divisive political advertising, at least within the EU.
The law will introduce measures to increase transparency and ensure maximum disclosure of who paid for political ads, how much was spent, and who the ad’s target audience was. The law also aims to prohibit the use of sensitive personal data for political ads and micro-targeting of ads based on users’ ethnic backgrounds, political preferences, and religion.
The objective of the regulation is to promote political discourse that is based on accurate information and transparency. This will help to enhance citizens’ trust in democratic institutions and create a secure online environment for political discourse. The implementation of the new law is expected to impact US corporations operating within the EU.
