Google Just Removed Seven Years of Political Advertising History from 27 Countries

"Google's Ad Transparency tool no longer shows political online advertisements that ran on its platforms, in the past or present, from any countries in the European Union, making seven years of data from 27 different countries inaccessible. Liz Carolan, who publishes Irish technology and politics newsletter The Briefing, spotted the change on September 28. Carolan noticed that until last week, Google's Ad Transparency tool would allow visitors to search ads that have run in countries in the EU going back to 2018,"

"The change is in response to the EU's upcoming Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA), a law set to enter full force on October 10. The TTPA lays out new regulations for advertisers in the EU, including requirements that political ads "must be clearly labelled as such and include information on who paid for it, to which election, referendum, legislative or regulatory process it is linked and whether targeting or ad-delivery techniques have been used,""

Google removed political online advertisements from its Ad Transparency tool for all European Union countries, erasing seven years of ad records spanning 27 member states. The archive previously allowed searches of ads dating back to 2018, showing targeting data, spending amounts, and which candidates or parties were promoted. The removal followed new EU rules under the Regulation on Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA), which takes full effect October 10 and requires clear labeling, disclosure of payers and linked electoral processes, and strict limits on targeting and ad-delivery techniques, including consent requirements and bans on profiling by sensitive demographics.

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