Meta to Halt Political, Electoral, and Social Issue Ads in the EU Starting This Week
Meta will begin prohibiting all paid political, electoral, and social-issue advertising across its platforms in the European Union as of October 6, 2025, at 6 pm Central European Time. The move responds to the new EU regulation known as the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA), which places stricter requirements on how political ads are targeted, disclosed, and labelled.
Under the TTPA rules, political ads must clearly identify who paid for them, specify if they relate to elections or referenda, expose their targeting criteria, and carry labels to show they are political in nature. Platforms must also ensure that users give explicit and separate consent for use of their data in such ads. Meta has said it is not able to meet these conditions at its current scale without introducing legal uncertainty and operational complexity.
Meta’s announcement confirms the company will not allow new ads of these categories in the EU after the implementation date. However, organic political content – such as posts by individuals, political entities, or grassroots movements – will continue to be permitted. Advertisers who rely on paid mechanisms to promote civic campaigns, issue awareness, or political messaging face a shrinking set of tools
Ads outside the EU region will remain unaffected by this ban. The TTPA regulation formally entered into law in March 2024 but many of its obligations become fully enforceable starting 10 October 2025 – making this pre-emptive halt on these ad types a very clear pre-emptive measure.
