A year before it’s required to abide by tough new rules, Google’s decided to stop serving political advertising in the EU.
The upcoming Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising, due to come into force next October, is simply too difficult to comply with, it said.
“For example, the TTPA defines political advertising so broadly that it could cover ads related to an extremely wide range of issues that would be difficult to reliably identify at scale,” said Annette Kroeber-Riel, vice president, government affairs and public policy for Europe.
“There is also a lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads related to any local, regional or national election across any of 27 EU Member States. And key technical guidance may not be finalized until just months before the regulation comes into effect.”
Google believes it’s done all it can in terms of regulating political advertisers, bumping up transparency requirements to include identity verification and in-ad disclosures that clearly show who paid for each ad.
It’s also laid out disclosure requirements for the use of synthetic or digitally altered content in election ads, maintained a dedicated Political Ads Transparency Report and restricted how advertisers can target election ads.
“As a result, there is more transparency regarding political ads on our services than there is for comparable television, newspaper or radio ads,” said Kroeber-Riel.
The TTPA, though, has very tight requirements.
Political ads must carry a transparency label and an easily retrievable transparency notice with information including the ad’s sponsor, the election or referendum to it’s linked, the amount paid, and any use of targeting techniques.
Targeted ads will only be allowed under strict conditions, needing specific consent, and special categories of personal data, such as racial or ethnic origin or political opinions, can’t be used for profiling.
And to prevent foreign interference, the bill includes a ban on the provision of advertising services to third country sponsors in the three months before an election or referendum.
This isn’t the first time that Google has withdrawn political advertising in a particular jurisdiction after concluding that it was too difficult to comply with regulations—it’s made similar decisions with France, Canada and Brazil over the last three years.
The move, which applies to YouTube as well as Google itself, will be re-evaluated as time goes by.
“We know political ads are a valuable resource for voters to find information and for candidates to share their message, so we regret that we have to take this step,” said Kroeber-Riel.
“Ahead of any election, people need access to useful, relevant and timely information and we’ll continue to invest in the people, policies, technology, products and partnerships necessary to display authoritative information and tackle disinformation and harmful content across our services.”
