Spain's data protection authority has ordered Meta to temporarily suspend the rollout of two new tools designed to provide information about the upcoming European Parliament elections on Instagram and Facebook.

The tools, called "Election Day Information" (EDI) and "Voter Information Unit" (VIU), were deemed by the agency to potentially violate the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) said the data processing planned by Meta for these tools would breach principles of lawfulness, data minimisation and storage limitation under GDPR. Specifically, it raised concerns about Meta collecting and retaining data like users' IP addresses, ages, genders and interactions with the tools in order to determine eligibility to vote.

"The data processing envisaged by Meta would put at serious risk the rights and freedoms of Instagram and Facebook users," the AEPD stated, warning it could allow excessive profiling. The watchdog argued the only requirement to vote in the EU election is being an adult citizen of a member state, making Meta's broader data collection "unnecessary, disproportionate and excessive."

The temporary ban, valid for up to three months, prevents Meta from deploying the tools in Spain ahead of the election.

A Meta spokesperson told Reuters the company disagrees with the AEPD's assessment and believes its election tools "have been expressly designed to respect users' privacy and comply with the GDPR."

Aside from Italy, where a similar procedure is ongoing, Meta had intended to launch the voter information features for all eligible EU users on Facebook and Instagram. The European Commission has also opened an inquiry into aspects of Meta's election activities under the Digital Services Act.

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