It is somewhat common practice for big social media and online platforms such as Facebook and Google to target people with political advertising. The European Union (EU) Commission now wants to understand why and who pays for those ads. This article by Eszter Zalan is published by EU Observer. Here is an excerpt:

The EU Commission wants companies like Facebook and Google to disclose how and why they target people with political advertising, and who pays for them, in an effort to make online political campaigning more transparent.

In a proposal published on Thursday (25 November), the commission also proposes to ban political targeting and “amplification techniques” to reach wider audiences if they are based on the user’s personal data such as religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity – unless the user gives explicit permission.

The EU executive have been concerned that disinformation, and the misuse of political advertising, undermines democratic elections.

Read the full article here.