Meta allowed dozens of advertisements from Irish politicians last year despite saying it would ban them, a new analysis has found.
In July 2025, the social media giant announced that from last October it would no longer allow political, electoral or social issue ads in the EU, blaming “unworkable requirements and legal uncertainties” associated with EU rules on political advertising.
However, a new audit run by an Irish non-profit found that 53 paid ads from national and local political Facebook pages ran on Meta platforms after the shutdown.
The audit by The Problem Solving Association (TPSA) found that ads from Independent TD Michael Lowry and Minister of State Alan Dillon ran after the ban.
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Ads from TDs, Senators, MEPs and local councillors from Sinn Féin, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Social Democrats, Labour and Independent Ireland also ran on the platform – with one for Catherine Connolly’s presidential campaign also briefly featuring after the ban took effect.
In total 24 pages ran political ads, the audit found, with Meta removing 19 – but only after they had already run. The remaining ads were not flagged for removal, and none were blocked from launching.
While the spend on the ads was modest and many related to constituency matters rather than campaigns, a spokesman for TPSA said its audit “shows the system built to enforce (the ban) doesn’t work consistently”.
The EU’s Transparency and Tartgeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) introduced conditions on how platforms serve political content to users in response to concerns around information manipulation and interference, as well as the processing of personal data.
Meta had no comment to make when contacted, but a source said it was against Meta policies for advertisers to run ads about social issues, elections and politics in the EU, and that the company rejects non-compliant ads when made aware of them.
Dillon said his team did not “fully understand the scope of the restriction” at the time of his ad, which was subsequently taken down. “We understand that restriction now,” he said, adding that he takes the rules seriously and no longer places political ads on Meta. His ads related to a dementia awareness campaign and the Western Rail Corridor funding announcement.
A source who worked at a senior level in the Connolly campaign said it had set its ad to come down when the ban took effect, and could not immediately explain why it remained active until Meta took it down on the day the ban kicked in.
Lowry did not respond to a request for comment.
The TPSA spokesman said: “[Meta] chose to stop political advertising in the EU. It now needs to explain why its own system let so much of it through anyway.
“TPSA is not suggesting any of the politicians named, their page administrators, or anyone paying for these ads, tried to get around Meta’s rules. The issue we’re raising is with how Meta’s systems recognise, classify and enforce its own policy against political advertisers in the EU.”
Coimisiún na Meán said that under the TTPA, all political advertising has to be clearly labelled and include a transparency notice.
“If an online user believes they have seen content that contravenes a platform’s terms and conditions, they have a right to report this to the platform where they saw it, and we would encourage them to do so,” a spokeswoman said.
She said Coimisiún na Meán was operationalising the regulation and engaging with relevant Government departments and competent authorities, as well as the European Commission and its European counterparts.
