The Houdini Ads - How political advertisements slip through Google’s and Meta’s filtering systems
Policy research brief – early experiences from the implementation of google’s and meta’s “zero political ad” policy
Even before the EU’s Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation (TTPA) came into effect, both Google and Meta had suspended political advertising1 on their platforms – at least officially. In practice, however, the transition has been far from smooth. Political ads, including seemingly harmless cartoons and hardcore deepfakes placed by Hungarian advertisers, are still running on both tech giants’ platforms. Often, they are simply (re)classified in other categories such as Business, Finance, Autos or Internet.
Hungary will hold its most consequential parliamentary elections in sixteen years in the spring of 2026. Reaching unaffiliated voters is crucial for all political forces, but compensating for the loss of political advertising poses a particular challenge for the ruling party that has championed political advertising in Hungary and the EU - for example, Fidesz spent more on social media advertising both on Google and Meta in the 2024 EP-elections than any other political party within the EU. In the first nine months of this year, before the ban took effect, government-affiliated actors — including government agencies, Fidesz politicians, government-organized media, and proxy organizations — paid for 87% of the HUF 4.1 billion (around EUR 10.6 million) spent on Google and Meta ads in Hungary. Opposition parties spent only a small amount in comparison. Even though this year was an election year in Czechia, spending on political advertisements in Hungary was eight times as much than in the Czech Republic. As we discovered in an earlier research project, the large volume of political advertisements flooded social media with sponsored disinformation and hostile narratives.
Political Capital in its study examine and summarize the main lessons on how Hungarian political advertisers reacted to the ban and the anomalies that the platforms’ policy enforcement processes created following the ban.
The full study is available here (pdf).
The research was carried out in the framework of the HDMO (Hungarian Digital Media Observatory) project, funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Health and Digital Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
