BRUSSELS: The European Parliament voted Thursday in support of banning foreign funding for political advertisements to lower the risk of outside interference in EU elections next year.
Russia’s disinformation campaign around the war in Ukraine and a scandal involving alleged attempts by Qatar and Morocco to buy influence at the parliament have heightened fears of outside involvement.
“MEPs propose non-EU based entities be banned from financing political advertisements in the EU,” a statement from the parliament said. It was one of the amendments to political advertising regulations proposed by the EU’s executive branch in 2021 after Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal. The parliament’s proposal now has to be negotiated between lawmakers, EU member states and the executive before a final law is approved.
The MEPs are also pushing to limit the use of personal data to target online political advertising. “Only personal data explicitly provided for online political advertising can be used by advert providers,” their text said. In addition the proposal wants to make it easier to access information about who is funding an advert, how much it costs and where the money comes from.
The EU is set to hold bloc-wide elections for the European Parliament in 2024.
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