Vlaams Belang ad spending surges ahead of Meta’s EU-wide ban
Just weeks before political ads will be banned on Facebook and Instagram, the far-right Vlaams Belang has drastically upped its spending on the platforms, according to data compiled by the citizens’ group Adlens and reported by De Standaard.
Between 19 August and 19 September, Vlaams Belang spent spent 327,630 euros on the platforms, according to Adlens. That is about 80,000 euros more than in the same period last year, when the party spent 254,794 euros on ads in the run-up to local elections.
While all Flemish parties except Open VLD increased their social media ad spending, none matched the scale or growth of Vlaams Belang.
Vlaams Belang is even drastically outspending parties in the Netherlands, where elections are coming up. There, the far-right Forum for Democracy leads the charts, spending 58,000 euros on ads last month. All Dutch parties combined spent roughly 160,000 euros in that period.
“Without elections, Vlaams Belang spends more in absolute terms than all Dutch parties combined,” says Geert Van Damme of Adlens. "And the Netherlands has three times the population."
Adlens bases its figures on estimates published by Meta itself. In late July, Meta announced it will ban all “political, electoral and social issue” ads on Facebook and Instagram across the EU starting in October.
"Without elections, Vlaams Belang spends more in absolute terms than all Dutch parties combined"
The move is driven by the EU's Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which imposes tougher requirements on how political ads are labelled, tracked and targeted. Meta says these rules introduce legal uncertainties and operational complexity that make compliance “untenable”.
Under the upcoming rule, political ads in the EU must clearly disclose who paid for them, which elections or causes they relate to and how they are targeted. Platforms must retain transparency archives. Google also announced it would stop serving political ads in EU countries due to the TTPA.
#FlandersNewsService | © BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS
Related news
