Political parties lean on social media more and more at every election as a campaign tool, while TV and radio spots and outdoor advertising are diminishing in importance.

However, on October 10 a new EU regulation, the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation (TTPA), comes into effect which puts in place political advertising transparency norms, aimed at combating foreign influence in elections.

Meta has said it will stop all advertisement about politics, elections, and social issues on its platforms in the EU as of October, due to the incoming legislation on political advertising.

Center Party secretary general Anneli Ott said Meta's political advertising ban will likely affect individual candidates or electoral alliances which are not yet widely known, more than a large and established party like Center. Ott said the issue should be looked at from the longer-term perspective too, as social media ads will likely have already done their job for the upcoming election, when the ban comes in.

"We have to think about how to create equal opportunities in society. What are the alternatives, so that money doesn't end up determining who gets to spread their message and who doesn't," Ott told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

Secretary General of the Social Democrats (SDE) Andre Hanimägi also said that the Meta ban won't prove catastrophic for the party's political campaigning between now and October 19. At the same time, there is no strong alternative, he said, adding that parties will most likely continue to advertise on the platforms as long as this is permissible. The bigger issue is the ban making younger people, who are more active on social media, unreachable to most politicians, Hanimägi noted.

"In reality, politicians in Estonia and the EU more broadly will lose the chance to reach and show so-called political content to young people, and that is a problem. Especially since we don't even know what TikTok, for example, is doing," he went on.

Hanimägi also found that separate disputes are likely to arise about how Meta is to distinguish political ads from social or other advertising.

Chair of the Parempoolsed party Lavly Perling said that social media has an important place in her party's election campaign, adding they are capable of adapting. That said, Perling called it unfortunate how the EU has started curbing how parties can reach their voters, through its regulation. She does not approve of Meta's response to this regulation either. Perling said she hopes that both organizations will take time to reflect, and that the restrictions and regulations will be rolled back.

"Certainly life shows that when various bans are used to impose restrictions, campaigns don't really diminish — instead, new paths, new opportunities, new channels get found," Perling said.

Reform Party Secretary General Timo Suslov said that if the rules are the rules, the party must act accordingly. The role of social media won't disappear with Meta's ban, but a different approach is needed, he added.

"I think people can also present themselves on social media, so to speak, and people can make their decisions based on that — it doesn't always have to include an explicitly political label," Suslov said.

Andres Metsoja, secretary general of Isamaa, said his party is to continue their social media campaign as already planned.

Meta plans to ban political, electoral, and social issue ads on its platforms starting in early October. The EU's regulation takes effect on October 10, just nine days before polling day for Estonia's local elections.

Several recent EU elections have been targeted by disinformation, and in December, Romania became the first member state to annul an election, in this case a presidential election, over foreign interference via social media.

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