Justice for Prosperity has resumed monitoring elections, this time the municipal elections.
As with previous elections, we again see parties making mistakes: political ads that platforms announced would no longer be permitted are still online (see the image below, with parties made unrecognisable).
On 10 October, the Political Advertising Regulation (PAR) came into force. These European rules require online platforms to make political ads more transparent and accountable. The aim is clear: greater openness about who pays for political advertising, who is being targeted and how voters are being influenced.
Major tech platforms such as Google and Meta subsequently announced they would block political ads entirely in the EU, rather than adapting their systems to meet the transparency requirements.
But our monitoring shows this is not happening properly. We are seeing signs that political ads are still being placed, remain online and continue to spread.
In the run-up to the municipal elections, we actively continue to monitor this. Transparent and fair elections are essential to our democracy, and that demands compliance with the rules, including from major technology companies.
The earlier report on national-level monitoring is available here (in Dutch).
