For the umpteenth time, European Union laws are forcing large technology companies to adapt their activities to the wider region, e.g. Google seems willing to show the required compliance and will now stop serving political ads to users in the European Union next year. This decision was made by Google citing concerns about the upcoming EU Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulations. In a recent post, Google explained that the new rules, which aim to limit election interference and inform voters, present significant “operational challenges and legal uncertainties.”
The tech giant raised concerns about the TTPA’s broad definition of advertising policy, which makes it difficult to determine what content should be restricted in different regions of the EU. With the TTPA coming into effect in October 2025, Google plans to stop political ads before then and will provide more details on the timing of that decision next year.
Ad providers will also need explicit user consent for targeted political ads and will not be allowed to use data from minors or certain personal information. In addition, the change will ban paid political promotions on YouTube that fall under the EU’s political ad transparency rules.
Google says it has already taken significant steps to regulate political ads, such as strengthening transparency requirements with identity verification and clear in-ad disclosures about who funded each ad.
Source: myphone.gr
