European Union flags in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
The European Commission has announced plans to regulate political advertising, clarifying the responsibilities of online platforms, advertisers and political consultancies.
Unveiled today, the European Democracy Action Plan has three main pillars: to promote free and fair elections, to strengthen media freedom and pluralism and to counter disinformation.
"With the digital revolution under way, citizens must be able to make choices where views can be expressed freely," says European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
"Facts have to be distinguished from fiction, and free media and civil society must be able to participate in an open debate, free from malign interference. Therefore the EU is taking action to make our democracies in the EU more resilient."
In terms of political advertising, the Commission is concerned about campaign tools that combine personal data and AI with psychological profiling and complex micro-targeting techniques. While some of these tools, such as the processing of personal data, are regulated by EU law, others come doewn simply to corporate terms of service.
It plans to propose legislation next year to increase the transparency of political ads and look at further restricting micro-targeting and psychological profiling.
Specific obligations could be imposed on online intermediaries and advertising service providers, covering labelling, record-keeping, disclosure requirements, transparency of price paid and targeting and amplification criteria.
However, this will be a slow process, with any change in the law likely to take years before it comes into effect.
"This will help raise the floor of regulation of political ads, and should help prevent a patchwork of different regulatory approaches popping up across the EU," says online ad monitoring group Who Targets Me.
"As always with these things, there’s a long road ahead and lots to be ironed out, but the specifics of the plan and the timeline (2021) give us a lot of hope and encouragement."
There are also plans to improve the EU's capacity to counter foreign interference, including the ability to impose costs on perpetrators. The Commission will issue guidance to enhance the Code of Practice on Disinformation next spring and set up a stronger framework for monitoring its implementation.
"We haven’t seen adequate steps from the platforms to address these problems themselves, and it’s time for regulatory solutions," says Raegan MacDonald, Mozilla’s head of public policy.
"So we welcome the Commission’s signal of support for the need for broad disclosure of sponsored political content. We likewise welcome the EDAP’s acknowledgement of the risks associated with microtargeting of political content."
