Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) The European Parliament has voted on a de facto ban on micro-targeting in political advertising, a strategy that identifies the interests of specific individuals and is making it easier to recognize a political advertisement and who paid for it.
EU lawmakers set up a regulation intended to increase transparency and crack down on disinformation in political advertising, which was launched by the Commission in 2020 as part of its Democracy Action Plan, to have it in place by the 2024 European Parliament elections.
Brussels Morning collected comments on the hot topic, from MEPs that were a part of the process in which numerous changes were adopted connected to political advertising rules.
MEP Sandro Gozi from Renew Europe, said: “There is too much undue interference in our democratic processes. As legislators, we have a responsibility to fight this but also to ensure debate remains open and free. This law will not kill political advertising, despite rumors spread by large online platforms. Nor will it stymie our freedom of expression. It will only limit abusive political advertising.”
Renew Europe MEP, Anna Donáth (Momentum, Hungary), rapporteur on the opinion issued by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, which had exclusive competencies on targeting, added:
“Online targeting and ad delivery techniques are used by the big tech industry involving personal data, sometimes even very sensitive ones, not only provided by us but also observed and inferred from our daily online activities. The use of these data creates specific audiences, fosters polarization, and causes deep divisions in our societies, risking the integrity of public debate, electoral processes, and our democracies. As LIBE Rapporteur, I am proud of the broad agreement and the solid text we found in this house to counter these unhealthy practices and to protect our democracies and fundamental rights by restricting the use of those data. Instead, we propose a system based only on consent, on personal data provided by the users.”
