Meta’s Approach to Elections
Meta is committed to providing reliable election information while combating misinformation across languages on our platforms. Our policies and safeguards for elections have been developed over many years and informed by our experiences of working on numerous elections around the world. Those experiences have resulted in the development of a robust election programme, which uses mature policies, processes, and tools to both protect speech on our platform and safeguard the integrity of the elections. We continuously improve these measures to ensure they remain appropriate and responsive to emerging risks, and we have reinforced these efforts in light of the regulatory framework set out under the Digital Services Act, the Election Guidelines, and our commitments under this Code.

Our Community Standards set out strict rules for content that can and cannot be posted on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. These policies cover voter interference, voter fraud, electoral violence, and misinformation, among other categories, such as, hateful conduct, coordinating harm and promoting crime, bullying and harassment. Our policies have been refined over many years, by partnering with academics, civil society, and third-party fact-checkers to find the appropriate balance between protecting people and protecting freedom of expression and information. These policies are regularly reviewed, and they are made available to the public through our Transparency Centre.

Our comprehensive approach to elections continued for European elections held between 1 January 2026 and 30 June 2026. The election responses covered in this report include:

2. Our Election Risk Management Processes

We have a dedicated team responsible for driving Meta’s cross-company election integrity efforts, leveraging experts from a full range of business functions to foster a holistic approach to tackling election-related risks. Those functions include colleagues in Meta’s intelligence, data science, product and engineering, research, operations, content and public policy, and legal teams. 

Over the years, Meta has developed a comprehensive approach to mitigate relevant user risks and respect the integrity of elections during an election period. This approach has been iterated and has matured over the course of hundreds of elections over the past years. We have processes, tools and policies in place all year round to address harmful or illegal content while protecting legitimate speech on our platforms, which have been further reinforced in light of the regulatory framework under the DSA including the Communication from the Commission (C/2024/3014) on Commission Guidelines for providers of Very Large Online Platforms and Very Large Online Search Engines on the mitigation of systemic risks for electoral processes (the “Election Guidelines”). 

During the reporting period for this report, we continued to work closely with a full range of external stakeholders to inform our processes and procedures ahead of elections. This included collaboration with Member State Digital Service Coordinators (DSCs), national authorities, electoral bodies, as well as taking part in the EU Code of Practice ("CoP") Rapid Response System. As part of the rapid response system framework, we onboarded designated civil society organisations and fact-checkers to our direct escalation channels to report time sensitive content, accounts or trends that could threaten the integrity of the electoral process. 

Overview of Cooperation with External Stakeholders and Election Integrity Efforts
Meta engages with a full range of external stakeholders to inform our processes and procedures as part of our day-to-day business, and this practice continued during our election preparation and integrity efforts for Portugal, Slovenia, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Malta. Meta values the networks and channels we have with our external stakeholders to work together in identifying risks on our platforms, and as such, we have welcomed many of the Election Guidelines recommending cooperation and points of contact with national authorities, civil society organisations, and others.

We remain focused on providing users with reliable election information while combating misinformation across languages. That is why we continue to connect people with details about the election for their Member State through in-app notifications, where legally permitted. We proactively point users to reliable information on the electoral process through in-app ‘Voter Information Units (VIU)’ and ‘Election Day Reminders (EDR)’.

Portugal Presidential Election
External engagement and election preparation efforts began early, spanning electoral authorities, government, and the European Commission (DG CNECT). ANACOM, the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC), was already onboarded to Meta’s escalation channels, and a refresher training session was held on the direct escalation channels. Meta also reached out to the National Election Commission (CNE) to offer onboarding. 

Ahead of the election, Meta conducted outreach to political parties sharing key information on account security and best practices for organic content. We were also in regular contact with civil society organisations and partners, including Iberifier, the European Partnership for Democracy, and ISCTE.

The Rapid Response System was activated approximately 6 weeks prior to the election, with onboarding conducted from 22 December 2025.

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (22 December 2025 to 13 February 2026):

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:
Facebook

Slovenia Parliamentary Election
Preparations for the Slovenian parliamentary election began well ahead of polling day, with early engagement across government, including the Minister of Digital Affairs. Meta took part in a roundtable hosted by the DSC, the Agency for Communication Networks and Services of the Republic of Slovenia, covering election preparedness. 

Meta activated its Rapid Response System for the election period and onboarded the Adria Digital Media Observatory (ADMO) to its direct reporting channel. We also offered to onboard the National Election Commission (DVK) to our reporting channels.

Throughout the campaign, Meta stayed in regular contact with civil society organisations and partners, including ADMO and the European Diplomacy Exchange Forum. Political parties were engaged directly through workshops, ensuring candidates’ teams understood Meta's policies, reporting channels, and election integrity measures.

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (23 February to 29 March 2026):

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:

Facebook

External engagement and election preparation for Denmark’s Parliamentary Election began early, spanning the government ministries and DSC. Meta engaged with the Danish Government’s election Taskforce, including the Ministries of the Interior, Foreign Affairs, and Defence, in Copenhagen to discuss election tools, reporting mechanisms, and foreign interference concerns, with further calls held ahead of the vote. Meta also held a webinar for parties on election tools and reporting mechanisms.

Meta activated its Rapid Response System for the election period, with direct escalation channels in place for the Danish Agency for Digitisation (DSC), the Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Interior, the Danish Medicines Agency, and Danish Gambling Authority, all previously onboarded. The Rapid Response System (RRS) has been activated, with EDMO Central as the coordinating body, which was duly onboarded. Throughout the campaign, Meta cooperated with its fact-checking partner TjekDet, which could receive content escalations directly for rating.

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (18 March to 7 April 2026): 

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:

Facebook

Hungary Parliamentary Election
Preparations for the election began well ahead of the vote including early engagements with government and national election entities. Meta also engaged political parties through scaled training and education sessions starting in Budapest in July 2025, clarifying Meta’s policies, establishing communication channels, and providing access to ‘Meta Support Pro’ for priority technical issues. 

Meta partnered with the National Election Office to connect users with authoritative voting information, and provided the National Media and Infocomm Authority (DSC) and the National Election Commission with training on key content policies and a dedicated session on the content escalation channel. 

Meta activated its Rapid Response System for the election period and onboarded Political Capital, Lakmusz, and the CEE Digital Democracy Watch (CEEDDW) to its direct reporting channel for civic-violating and unlawful content. Meta cooperated with its fact-checking partner AFP and launched a Trending Event using relevant keywords to help AFP identify and debunk election-related misinformation, and stayed in close contact with AFP throughout the campaign to ensure they were supported. 

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (13 March to 21 April 2026):

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:

Facebook

Bulgaria Parliamentary Election
External engagement and preparations for the Bulgarian snap parliamentary election began early, spanning the electoral commission, government, and the European Commission. Meta held two meetings with the Bulgarian Minister of e-Governance and cross-government partners to discuss election-related topics, and directed them to existing escalation channels. The Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), Bulgaria’s DSC, was engaged to explain overall election efforts and respond to its requests for information. 

Meta activated its Rapid Response System for the election period and onboarded the BROD/GATE hub to its direct reporting channel. The Central Election Commission was offered escalation channel onboarding but remained offboarded.

Throughout the campaign, Meta stayed in regular contact with civil society and research organisations, including the Balkan Free Media Initiative (BFMI), the GATE Institute and BROD hub. 

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (23 March to 26 April 2026):

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:
Facebook

Cyprus Parliamentary Election
External engagement and election preparation efforts began early, with in-person engagement with the Central Election Service (CES). CES was temporarily re-onboarded to Meta’s escalation channels for blackout period reporting. The Cyprus Radio and Television Authority, as the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC), was onboarded to Meta’s direct reporting channel. Meta also engaged with the Minister of the Interior. 

MEDDMO was onboarded as the Rapid Response System partner and proactively flagged content during the election period. 

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (27 April to 2 June 2026): 

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:

Facebook

Malta General Election
External engagement and election preparation efforts were put in place quickly following the snap election announcement. Meta engaged with the Malta Communications Authority (DSC) through a roundtable covering platform preparedness, content moderation coverage, risk identification, and election integrity safeguards. The Maltese Electoral Commission was contacted for onboarding to direct escalation channels and confirmed its official website for the election products. 

Meta activated its Rapid Response System for the election period, with the MEDDMO hub onboarded as the RRS partner covering Malta. Meta held two RRS meetings with MEDDMO, and all cases were cleared during the election period.

Overview of partners and notifications received during the Rapid Response Implementation period (8 May to 7 June 2026): 

Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder Reach:

Facebook

Responsible Approach to Generative AI
Meta’s approach to responsible AI is another way that we are safeguarding the integrity of elections globally, including for the EU national elections.

Community Standards, Fact-Checking, and AI Labelling:

Our Community Standards and Advertising Standards apply to all content, including content generated by AI. AI-generated content is also eligible to be reviewed and rated by Meta’s third-party fact-checking partners, whose rating options allow them to address various ways in which media content may mislead people, including but not limited to media that is generated or edited by AI. 

Meta labels photorealistic images created using Meta AI, as well as AI-generated images from certain organic content creation tools. For advertising content, Meta labels images and videos that were created or significantly edited using our 1P generative AI ad creative tools.

Meta has begun labelling a wider range of media content when we detect industry-standard AI indicators or when users disclose that they are uploading AI-generated or AI-edited content. Meta requires people to use this disclosure and label tool when they post organic content with a photorealistic video or realistic-sounding audio that was digitally created or altered, and may apply penalties if they fail to do so. If Meta determines that digitally created or altered image, video, or audio content creates a particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of importance, we may add a more prominent label, so that people have more information and context.

Continuing to Foster AI Transparency through Industry Collaboration:

Meta has also been working with other companies in the tech industry on common standards and guidelines. Meta Platforms, Inc. is a member of the Partnership on AI, for example, and signed onto the tech accord designed to combat the spread of deceptive AI content in 2026 elections globally. Meta receives information from Meta Platforms, Inc. in the progress of these initiatives, and benefits from these partnerships when addressing the risks of manipulated media.