Political Advertising and Disinformation: The European Approach
MediaLawsMar 28, 2023
Amid concerns about complying with new EU regulations targeting online campaigns, Meta — Facebook and Instagram's parent company — is reportedly exploring changes to its policies surrounding political advertising for its users in Europe.
EU policymakers have brought forward rules requiring tech companies to disclose information about political ads, including their cost, who paid for them, and how many users they reached. Meta is reportedly worried about how broad the definition of political ads may be.
This issue of social media fake news is not one of a few misinformed citizens expressing their ideas online, but rather of targeted and malicious "disinformation for hire," which domestic and foreign actors deliberately pay for to manipulate the national politics of sovereign states. This is why the EU has adopted its new Digital Services Act to demand multinational corporations finally combat the brainwashing attempts by such malevolent actors.
Most European countries have never genuinely valued free speech. Yet, Brussels is taking this attitude to a new level by imposing a radical censorship mechanism intended to force social media companies — through the Digital Services Act, among others — to follow an imposed ideological content-moderation policy. These laws aren't meant to protect Europeans from so-called dangerous speech, but speech that threatens the ruling class.