Civil Society Open Letter on the ongoing negotiations regarding the Regulation of Political Advertising

Together with 27 civil society organisations, we are writing to voice our deep concern regarding the worrying developments related to the Regulation on the Targeting and Transparency of Political Advertising. Specifically, we urge EU co-legislators to:

• Adopt the position of the European Parliament on Article 12 and accompanying recital 47, which aligns with and strengthens the provisions of GDPR and DSA by also prohibiting the processing of observed or inferred personal data, in line with the European Data Protection Board Guidelines 8/2020 on the targeting of social media users.
• Ensure the scope of the Regulation remains narrowly focused on political advertising, i.e. excluding direct, unpaid communications between political parties or CSOs on the one hand, and their members, former members and recent contacts on the other. So-called “organic” speech by political candidates, parties, CSOs, and individuals should likewise remain out of scope.