We publish our Ex-post Analysis of the Rapid Response System (RRS) during the 2026 Cyprus Parliamentary Elections, focusing on paid political advertising and platform enforcement practices.
Over the course of the election campaign, our team monitored thousands of advertisements across major online platforms and participated in the EU Code of Conduct on Disinformation’s Rapid Response System. The findings reveal gaps between platform policies and their practical enforcement, particularly regarding transparency, advertiser accountability, and the timing of interventions.
Among the key observations:
- Systematic monitoring identified thousands of political advertisements across platforms.
- Anonymous third-party advertising operations exploited transparency and enforcement weaknesses.
- Direct engagement between researchers, platforms, and the European Commission significantly accelerated platform responses compared to standard reporting channels.
- Important challenges remain regarding advertiser identity disclosure, account-level enforcement, researcher access to platform data, and the overall effectiveness of election integrity safeguards.
The report provides evidence-based recommendations aimed at strengthening platform accountability, improving reporting mechanisms, and enhancing electoral integrity across the EU.
This work was carried out within the MedDMO project and contributes to ongoing discussions on the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising Regulation (TTPA), and the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation.
You can read the short and extended versions of the reports on the Cyprus team’s experience with the RRS below.
For further details, see also the report “Anonymous third-party paid political advertising in the Cyprus 2026 parliamentary elections“.
Ex-post analysis of the Rapid Response System for the 2026 Cyprus parliamentary elections – Short version
