Meta's ban on political ads will mean less transparency and more slop for users

Ireland's presidential election could get a lot more interesting than expected, if Meta goes ahead with removing transparency and filtration tools, says Facebook’s first Political Ads representative in Europe

After Brexit, Trump and the Cambridge Analytica scandal brought a reckoning, Facebook’s response at the time was to launch a complex authorisation and transparency process for all political advertising on its platforms. File photo/Michael Dwyer

Meta’s announcement on Friday that it will ban all political ads in the EU on Facebook and Instagram is terrible not just for political advertisers but for the public as a whole.

I was Facebook’s first Political Ads representative in Europe, and I launched their Political Ad authorisation and oversight process before leaving the company in 2019. I now advise political campaigners on how to use digital tools, including ads.