Google decides Europe's political ad rules are too hard to implement at scale
- Reference: 1731648666
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/11/15/google_stops_eu_political_ads/
- Source link:
The search and ads giant on Thursday [1]announced that it will stop serving political advertising in the EU sometime before October 2025 – when the Regulation (TTPA) comes into force.
Annette Kroeber-Riel, the big G's veep for government affairs and public policy in Europe, wrote that the TTPA "unfortunately introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms."
[2]
"For example, the TTPA defines political advertising so broadly that it could cover ads related to an extremely wide range of issues that would be difficult to reliably identify at scale," she wrote. Another concern is the "lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads related to any local, regional or national election across any of 27 EU Member States."
[3]
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Kroeber-Riel also noted that "key technical guidance may not be finalized until just months before the regulation comes into effect."
The [5]TTPA was passed in March 2024 and [6]billed as making it easier for voters to recognize political ads and learn who paid for them.
[7]
The regs therefore require ad platforms to identify political spots, identify the sponsor, the election or referendum to which they pertain, the amounts paid, and any use of targeting techniques. Targeted ads are only allowed after individuals opt in – separate from any other permissions they've granted.
[8]Here's how a Trump presidency could change the tech industry
[9]Judge decides not to block Musk's $1M election giveaway
[10]China’s Spamouflage cranks up trolling of US Senator Rubio as election day looms
[11]Meta to build election operations center in Europe to inspect AI content
Other jurisdictions already have laws on the books that require things like keeping records about political ads and making records of who bought and saw them available to the public. Those rules aren't always easy to comply with – ask Meta, which in 2022 [12]copped substantial fines for over 800 infractions of Washington State law.
In 2024 some legislators also decided political ads generated by AI should be flagged so that voters know when humans outsource persuasion to machines.
Google has previously required those who place political ads to provide extra ID info, and says it aims to inform voters and protect election integrity.
But clearly the search and ads giant fears it can't do enough to meet the TTPA's requirements.
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Which may be the point of the regulations. Another of Europe's aims is to stop those outside the Union from using online ads to influence elections. If even Google doesn't think it can reliably detect and prevent outside actors from trying to make a point during elections – and fears the consequences of failure – that's a win for Europe. ®
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[1] https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/political-advertising-in-eu/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zzcp1_9jyF4FcyWCI7U4xAAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zzcp1_9jyF4FcyWCI7U4xAAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zzcp1_9jyF4FcyWCI7U4xAAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/900/oj
[6] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2024/03/11/eu-introduces-new-rules-on-transparency-and-targeting-of-political-advertising/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zzcp1_9jyF4FcyWCI7U4xAAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/13/president_trump_tech/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/05/judge_musks_1m_election_giveaway/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/21/china_spamouflage_trolls_marc_rubio/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/27/meta_telection_infotrmation_ai/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/28/meta_fined_246m_political_ads/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zzcp1_9jyF4FcyWCI7U4xAAAAFg&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: What's the definition of a "political ad"?
I've just read the article and I don't know the law either. That said, from what I understand, a "political ad" for this law is anything that relates to an upcoming election or referendum. So a pro-abortion ad would be covered by the law if there was a referendum on abortion coming up.
I've no idea whether that would extend to pro-abortion ads if there was no referendum, but there was an election where abortion was considered a major issue. That ambiguity could actually be resolved in the law for what I know, but if it isn't it might be one of Google's reasons.
I have the feeling that a big part of Google's problem is that, even if there was no ambiguity, there is no automated way to figure out whether an ad is covered or not. There is no central database of all elections and referendums. Even if there was, ads do not come pre-tagged, and so-called AIs are not reliable enough to identify something that could land you in court if misidentified.
Google's business model relies strictly on full automation; they can't afford having a human vet ads.
All things considered, I'm fine with the end result. Most political ads give zero or negative information anyway.
Re: What's the definition of a "political ad"?
They can afford humans to process and vet ads, but that would harm their profits... and we all know they wouldn't want their profits to dip from 25.6 billion to 25.59 billion because they had to hire a few hundred extra staff
Re: What's the definition of a "political ad"?
Greenpeace for example is registered as a political organisation rather than a charity, so I guess that is your starting point for an ad supporting green energy.
If it is a company advertising their specific solar panels, then that would be commercial, but if it is an ad campaigning for changes in planning regulations to make it easier to install them in your roof or to export the power to the grid, then that would be political.
Wait, what?
The EU actually wants the money driven advertisements banished from it's elections? That is so un-American! The worst un-American ever! Not even the Democrats are this un-American!
"it will stop serving political advertising in the EU"
Good.
We don't need to adopt that bullshit here.
We have enough bullshit as it is.
Are google really saying
That they don't know where the ads they serve are going?
And despite being a search engine, they can't tell when and where elections are being held?
Re: Are google really saying
...they can't tell when and where elections are being held bought?
FTFY.
Re: Are google really saying
And they don't know who's paying for them? Much more likely that they know if they are forced to show who's paying for it, they won't get the business, so why bother.
Re: Are google really saying
Have you actually used google to search for anything recently... it's become so enshitified that you can't find any decent information anymore. I made the mistake of using it recently instead of duckduckgo, and I had to scroll to what was probably page 3 or 4 before i found anything close to what I wanted. The first page was AI, ads and SEO bollocks, the 2nd was all SEO bollocks, often with multiple links to a variety of pages on the same unrelated site that took up 40% of the page.
I remember not to make that mistake again later that same day, used DDG and found what I wanted 5th one down the first page
Lack of reliable local election data permitting consistent and accurate identification of all ads
In other words, they don't have people on the ground who could collect this information, or the mechanisms to take account of local circumstances, and don't want the expense associated with them.
It's probably as neat an illustration as any that accuracy, transparency or accountability aren't financially compatible with a model based on the algorithmic identification of aggregate characteristics of the source and the recipient.
A simple solution
Each party has a designated account with each platform. Only those accounts/parties can post political ads, each ad being easily linked back to the party that authorised it. Limit the spend for ads so that each party has the same amount, and have fixed fees to advertise so that no 'special' deals can be made. Full transparency with all ads and the targeting data being made public within 24hrs of the ad going live.
Ban everything else, make parties liable and identifiable for their ads, stop the flow of 3rd party ads and outside attempts to influence elections.Punish platforms if they allow outside political ads, make flouting these laws criminal, not punishable by fines.
You always have to start by stopping the dirty money flowing into elections/politics.
Re: A simple solution
Sure, but not everything that is political is party political. A lot is about persuading political parties to adopt your position on something, a lot is also about local issues.
On transport for example, all of the parties in my district, with the exception of Reform UK Ltd, support one position on a particular local issue. In the neighbouring district, all of the parties with the exception of Reform UK Ltd support the opposite position. Reform UK Ltd's position is to throw more money at transport, seemingly unaware that much of the existing transport budget gets returned unspent because the two districts are unable to agree on what to do with the money.
Not a fan of google but could they not just add a tick box to ads saying "Tick box if this is a political ad" then use the "Not my fault they didn't tick it guvnor" excuse?
This is Europe, not the USA. A tick box saying "I waive my human rights" means jack shit in Europe whereas in the USA that's an iron clad contract.
Google has decided ... it's better off not trying.
A win then! ;))
What's the definition of a "political ad"?
Its obvious if it is say "vote for Trump" or "vote for Harris". If it is pro abortion rights in the US most could infer which candidate it supports but even if you'd argue that's not certain it is obviously political in nature. What about an ad supporting green energy? One could argue that's political, but the motivation behind the advertising might be to encourage consumers to buy solar panels.
So I don't think Google saying "we won't accept political ads" is going to get them off the hook. Some of those who want to run political ads are going to try to sneak them by, and some will succeed. What's Google say then, "well they didn't tell us it was political how we were to know?"
I don't know anything about the law so maybe Google is bs'ing when they say the law is unworkable and that's why they are dropping political ads, but if that's true and it is equally unworkable to drop political ads because you'll still get in trouble, it could be a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't.