EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising: Good Intentions but Clarifications and Amendments still Needed
EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising: Good Intentions but Clarifications and Amendments still Needed

Author(s): Katarína Klingová
Subject(s): Sociology of Politics, Fake News - Disinformation
Published by: EUROPEUM - Institut pro evropskou politiku
Summary/Abstract: The development information technologies, including social media platforms with possibilities of micro-targeted campaigns quickly transformed the concept of political communication and electoral campaigning. The negative impact on electoral system and democratic political processes was revealed with Cambridge Analytica and its scandal, which was just one of many companies offering such services. Online political advertising has not only opened up new possibilities for democratic dialogue and creative engagement, it has also become a relatively cheap and easy way of amplifying information manipulation as well. The impact of such online information manipulation was possible to observe, among others, during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, the Brexit Referendum in the UK as well as the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January 2021. As these new vulnerabilities have emerged with the rise of online political advertising, the European Commission’s aim to tackle them and limit their impact on the quality of democracy should be recognized. On November 25, EU Commission published a proposal for a regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertisement . This paper attempts to provide a constructive feedback on the proposed draft bringing into attention observed practices in information landscaped and election campaigns from Central Europe. Facebook, as the most used and thus the most influential social media platform in the region, is the focus of this paper.

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