Labour considering legal options after Meta temporarily disabled ad accounts ahead of election

The Labour Party has said it is considering its legal options and is seeking a regulatory investigation following the suspension of its advertising accounts by tech giant Meta for a number of hours on Wednesday.

While the accounts have now been restored, the party has said it is “deeply concerned” at the development and raised questions about interference on the eve of local and European elections.

On Thursday morning, Labour Senator Marie Sherlock said the events were “extremely serious”, adding: “There are strong grounds to argue that the suspension of our account is a breach of the Digital Services Act given that no proper notice was given, no reason was given and it is frankly outrageous that Meta are still unable to provide any explanation to us of why it happened.”

She said the party has contacted Coimisiún na Meán asking it to investigate.

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Concerns have previously been raised about the ability of big tech companies to regulate and remove misleading or false information in the run-up to elections, as well as where the matter falls in terms of their priorities.

In a statement on Thursday, a spokeswoman for Meta said: “The ad account was restored shortly after it was disabled. We’re continuing to investigate.”

It is understood the platform is also examining the disabling of an account used by Sinn Féin MEP Chris MacManus.

Ms Sherlock said the suspension “raises very serious questions for the political system in terms of the accountability and transparency of online platforms. Thee are also serious concerns about political interference and the putting of one party at a significant competitive disadvantage relative to other parties at such a key time of the campaign”.

“Given that Meta were and still are not able to account for what happened, we believe there are concerns about the vulnerability of online platforms to interference. We are aware that other public reps and candidates have experienced the suspension of their ad accounts, without explanation over the past year or more and without speedy resolution.”

In a previous statement on Wednesday night, a spokesperson for the Labour Party said: “This evening Meta disabled the Facebook and Instagram advertising account of the Labour Party without any warning or notice, less than 36 hours before polls open.

“Representatives of the company have been unable to provide any explanation as to why this happened or when it will be resolved. The initial automatic response indicates it was due to unusual activity on the account.

Labour received a notification at 11pm to say its accounts had been restored, but it said no reason has been given why it was disabled for “at least two hours”.

“The lack of answers or action from Meta is unacceptable,” said the spokesperson.

“The incident raises serious questions about the integrity of Meta’s systems so close to polling day and their ability to influence elections, with Labour Party ads now stopped while other political parties and candidates can continue to advertise.

“This impacts our three European MEP candidates, candidate for Limerick mayor, dozens of our local election candidates and our national get out the vote campaign.”

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