With Catherine Connolly now settled into the Áras as Ireland’s 10th President, something important about that recently election slipped by quietly.

While Friday 24 October was the headline date, another moment came and went almost unnoticed: 10 October, the day that marked the end of online political advertising as we’ve known it.

That was when new EU rules on advertising came fully into force, reshaping how paid political communication must appear across the Union.

As Ireland was one of the first countries to hold an election under EU rules on political advertising, anything you saw online after 10 October about the Presidential election, was entirely organic, with no paid targeting or spend behind it. That’s a major shift - and will continue to be so, for us individuals, for organisations and for social media platforms themselves.

What’s changed?

The Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation (or Regulation (or (EU) 2024/900 to its friends) is part of the EU’s broader effort to curb disinformation and make political messaging more transparent.

In practice, here’s the headlines:

• Clear labelling: Every online political ad must state who paid for it and link to full details of funding and sponsors.

• No sensitive-data targeting: Using personal or sensitive information for targeting is now banned.

• No foreign funding: Ads financed from outside the EU are prohibited during election periods.

• Meaningful penalties: Breaches can bring fines of up to 6% of annual turnover for political sponsors, service providers, and other actors involved.

• Public-information exemption: “How to vote” or “use your vote” messages remain allowed.

• Advocacy included: Civil society and advocacy groups fall under the rules too.

• Organic content untouched: Non-paid posts — personal or organisational — are not covered.

For anyone who wants the full detail, @An Coimisiún Toghcháin, The Electoral Commission has a helpful overview of all this stuff.

Interestingly, before the Regulation took effect, both Google and Meta announced they would simply stop accepting political or social-issue ads in the EU during elections, across Search, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Those same kinds of ads can continue elsewhere in the world a striking example of how EU rules can shape global practice.

What does this mean?

For individuals

Voters now shoulder even more responsibility for judging what they see online. Organic content — posts, memes, shareable clips — will dominate future campaigns.

Layer in the rise of AI, and things get trickier: deepfakes, synthetic voices, and algorithmic amplification will make it harder than ever to tell what’s authentic, and you can expect the discussion around what is real and what isn’t to dominate space in future elections.

For organisations

Political parties and advocacy groups will need to rely far more on creativity, storytelling, and community engagement. We’ve already seen this shift in action:

• Catherine Connolly’s campaign gained momentum through incredible organic video shares — including those now-iconic keepy-uppies.

• Fine Gael’s “attack ad” reached wide audiences without any paid promotion, proving that controversy alone can generate attention.

Critics of the new rules argue that the ban on paid ads may disadvantage smaller parties and advocacy groups, narrowing the range of political voices online. It’s the advocacy sector that may feel the strain most sharply — one to watch.

For platforms

The largest platforms have taken their positions, but others still need to decide how they’ll operate in the EU. All face growing pressure to respond to deepfakes and misleading organic content, which remain outside the Regulation.

A final thought

What’s most striking is how little public conversation this shift has generated — and how quietly the EU’s regulatory power can change behaviour long before most people realise.

This space is evolving fast, and it’s one to be watching closely to see how it shapes the nature of public debate in our elections ahead.