In response to the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising, Meta said on Friday that it would stop selling and showing political ads in the EU from October 2025.

Meta announced it will stop selling political, electoral and social issue advertising across its platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) in the European Union starting in early October 2025[1][2].

The decision comes in response to the EU’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which takes effect October 10, 2025. Meta called the rules “unworkable,” citing “significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties”[2:1].

The TTPA requires platforms to:

  • Label political ads with transparency information
  • Disclose who paid for ads and their costs
  • Show which elections or referendums ads target
  • Maintain ads in a public database
  • Follow strict conditions for user targeting[3]

Companies face fines of up to 6% of annual global revenue for violations[2:2]. Google made a similar move in late 2024, also announcing it would stop serving political ads to EU users before the rules take effect[4].

Meta emphasized that users can still discuss politics and politicians can share content “organically” on its platforms - they just cannot use paid advertising to amplify their messages[2:3].

  1. Bloomberg - Meta to Stop Selling Political Ads in the EU, Citing Regulation ↩︎

  2. AP News - Meta will cease political ads in European Union by fall ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. Euronews - Meta halts political advertising in the EU due to ‘unworkable’ rules ↩︎

  4. Economic Times - Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October ↩︎