The European Parliament approved new rules on Tuesday to regulate political advertisements in order to protect against foreign interference and disinformation.
The text, adopted by 470 votes for and 50 against, aims to guarantee greater transparency of political advertisements, that is to say messages published on behalf of political actors or intended to influence electoral behavior within the framework of of a vote being held in the European Union.
Entities based outside the European Union will now be prohibited from funding political advertising within the EU in the three months preceding an election or referendum.
The legislation also requires online platforms to clearly report political advertisements so that everyone can know why they were targeted, who financed the advertisement and for what amount.
Only personal data explicitly provided for online political advertising purposes and collected directly from an individual may be used.
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“Let the digital space remain a safe place”
Profiling based on personal data relating to ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation is prohibited, as is the use of data relating to minors.
The Commission will be responsible for setting up, two years after the entry into force of the new rules, a publicly accessible database listing all online political advertisements, for a maximum period of seven years.
The full set of rules will only apply 18 months after their formal adoption by the Council, but some elements, such as non-discrimination provisions, will come into force in time for the European elections in June 2024
. With the European elections approaching, we urge major online platforms to start implementing the new rules as soon as possible and ensure that the digital space remains a safe place for the exchange of political ideas and opinions »
, underlined French MEP Sandro Gozi (Renew, centrists and liberals), rapporteur on this issue.