Google to no longer show political ads in the EU

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) will not show political advertisements in Europe ahead of the block’s upcoming regulation involving such ads, which passes into effect in October next year, the tech giant said in a blog post Thursday.

The company said it will no longer allow paid political promotions on YouTube in the region before the regulation takes effect.

“The European Union’s upcoming Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) unfortunately introduces significant new operational challenges and legal uncertainties for political advertisers and platforms. 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,” Google said.

“There is also a 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,” the tech giant added.

The company made similar decisions to exit political ads in France in 2021 and in Canada and Brazil earlier this year.