Presidential election: Facebook and Instagram to ban ads in protest at EU rules

A ban on political ads on the likes of Facebook will hit all three presidential campaigns from next week. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced in July that it would end political, electoral, and advocacy-based advertising on its platforms in protest at new EU rules which will be implemented in Ireland later this month. The ban itself will come into effect in the coming days. However, all three campaigns said it was something they were aware of and planning for. Humphreys is biggest spender Heather Humphreys has, according to Meta’s publicly available data, been by far and away the biggest spender on the platforms.  Her €12,900 spend in the last 30 days dwarfs that of Catherine Connolly’s €3,700 and Jim Gavin’s €2,700. A spokesperson for the Connolly campaign said that it had “built a large organic reach and engaged Catherine’s supporters online and we’re optimistic that with their help, even without advertising, we’ll be able to bring her message to a broad audience in the weeks before the election”. Gavin ads ‘have reached 2m people’ According to a spokesperson for the Gavin campaign, his ads have reached more than 2m people online with an overall online spend on all
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