A new report has accused Meta of failing to moderate political ads after discovering a flurry of pro-Russian propaganda in Europe ahead of EU elections.

The new investigation by AI Forensics has explored a sprawling Russian influence operation exploiting the tech giant’s failure to moderate ads and delete propaganda in the EU.

“The systemic failure in moderating political ads by Meta is deeply concerning, especially with elections on the horizon. The surge of pro-Russian propaganda is a prime example; despite repeated warnings, Meta has acknowledged the issue, claimed significant investment in safety and security, yet neglected to effectively address it, casting doubt on their commitment to democratic integrity,” said Paul Bouchaud, the lead researcher of the study.

“While pro-Russian propaganda efforts in Europe intensify, Meta is not taking effective action, even against operations that have been repeatedly exposed and acknowledged. These elections are a critical first test of the EU’s new Digital Services Act, which finally gives the EU the tools to act on such oversight,” said Marc Faddoul, director of AI Forensics.

Investigating Meta’s Ad Library in 16 EU countries since August 2023, after the EU’s Digital Services Act was put in place, the study found undeclared political ads among the corpus of 30 million published in January and February 2024.

The study revealed that not only are less than 5% of undeclared political ads moderated by Meta, 60% of ads moderated by Meta do not even fall into their own moderation guidelines on political advertising.

Alarmingly, AI Forensics discovered a network of 3,826 pages disseminating pro-Russian propaganda in a coordinated Facebook campaign.

In France and Germany this campaign reached 38 mullion users between August 2023 and March 2024 – Meta only moderated less than 20% of these ads, typically well after the content had spread.

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The investigation comes as the EU looks to implement more stringent regulations designed to strengthen oversight on advertising. These include the Digital Services Act, as well as new regulation on the transparency and targeting of political advertising, and the EU Commission’s recently published guidelines on election integrity, which compel platforms to clearly label political ads and enhance transparency.

“If there is one thing to celebrate, it is the fact that the new transparency requirements for platforms in the EU are proving effective: without those rules, which Meta diligently implemented, we would not have had access to the data which allowed us to expose this operation,” Faddoul.