Meta Platforms Inc. said it will stop accepting political, electoral and broader social-issue advertisements across the European Union beginning in early October 2025. The company, which runs Facebook and Instagram, said incoming EU rules create “an untenable level of complexity and legal uncertainty,” making the ad category impractical to maintain. The bloc’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation comes into force the same month and will require platforms to identify ad sponsors, disclose spending and curb micro-targeting based on personal data. Meta argued that complying would add burdensome processes without assurance its methods would be deemed acceptable, and that users would ultimately see less-relevant advertising. Google adopted a similar stance in November 2024, announcing it would withdraw political ads in the EU for the same reason. While Meta’s chief financial officer has previously described political advertising as immaterial to revenue, the move adds to a series of clashes with Brussels that have already cost the company almost €1 billion in fines over the past year.