The proposals, aimed at ensuring fair and transparent polls
or referendums, would also ban political targeting and “amplification
techniques” used to reach a wider audience if they use sensitive personal data
like ethnic origin, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation without a
citizen's permission.
“Digital advertising for political purposes is becoming an
unchecked race of dirty and opaque methods,” European Commission Vice-President
Vera Jourova said. “A myriad of data analytics and communication firms work
daily with our data to try to figure out the best way to convince us to buy
something or vote for someone or not to vote at all."
She said people “must know why they are seeing an
advertisement, who paid for it, how much, what micro-targeting criteria were
used. New technologies should be tools for emancipation, not for
manipulation."
The commission, the EU's executive branch, hopes that the 27
member countries and the European Parliament will have debated and endorsed the
proposals in national law by 2023, in time for Europe-wide elections the
following year.
Companies like Facebook and Google, the two dominant players
in the digital advertisement industry,
would face fines if they failed to comply.
Facebook, which has faced heavy criticism for its lack of
transparency on political advertisements, welcomed the move.
“We have long called for EU-wide regulation on political ads
and are pleased that the Commission's proposal addresses some of the more
difficult questions, in particular when it comes to cross border advertising,”
the company, which recently renamed itself Meta, said in a press statement.
Google said in a blog post that it supported the proposals
and recommended the commission clearly define political advertisements and
spell out responsibilities for tech platforms and advertisers while still
keeping the rules flexible.
Twitter, which banned all political advertisements in 2019,
said it believed that “political reach should be earned, not bought" and
noted that it has also restricted and removed micro-targeting from other types
of ads like cause-based ones.
Under the EU plan, political advertisements would have to be
clearly labelled, and prominently display the name of the sponsor, with a
transparency notice that explains how much the advertisement cost and where the
funds to pay for it came from. The material would have to have a direct link to
the vote or poll concerned.
Information must be available about the basis on which a
person, or group of people, is being targeted by the advertisement, and what
kind of amplification tools are being used to help the sponsor reach a wider
audience. Advertisements would be banned if such criteria cannot be met.
Jourova told reporters that “the sensitive data that people
decide to share with friends on social media cannot be used to target them for
political purposes.” She said that “either companies like Facebook are able to
publicly say who they are targeting, why and how or they will not be able to do
it.”
The system would be policed by data protection authorities
in each of the EU member countries. National authorities would be required to
impose “effective, proportionate and dissuasive fines” when the rules are
broken.
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