Google will stop displaying political ads in the European Union. This decision was a response to new rules that will soon come into force in the EU.
These rules provide for «significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms». The company stated that the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising has an overly broad definition of political advertising, and technical clarifications on the policy may not be available until closer to October 2025, when the rules come into effect.
In addition to stopping political ads by October of next year, Google also announced that paid political ads will be banned on YouTube within the EU. The company noted that similar regulations have already forced it to stop showing political ads in Canada, France, and Brazil.
In recent years, Google’s advertising and advertising technologies have been closely monitored by European regulators. In 2019, the company managed to avoid a fine for «abuse» in its advertising activities, but last year it was accused of violating antitrust laws. In addition, Google has taken other controversial actions within the EU. Just yesterday, the company launched a small, time-limited» test, removing search results from EU news publishers in Google Search, Google News, and the Discover feed.
Source: Engadget