A Czech far-right political party has spent thousands of dollars on online ads without the necessary disclosures, a US factchecking organisation reported Friday as the country went to the polls.
Polls opened Friday in the Czech Republic鈥檚 two-day general election, which the party of ex-premier Andrej Babis is expected to top with support exceeding 30 percent, according to opinion polls.
The far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement of Tokyo-born entrepreneur Tomio Okamura is expected to gain 12 percent of votes.
The American Sunlight Project examined records of ads promoting the three main parties in the Meta Ad Library up to September 24, 2025, starting from April 2019.
It found that SPD had run the most ads without a disclaimer, which is supposed to name the entity that paid for the ad.
Okamura鈥檚 party spent $344,282 on Meta ads in the period, of which $11,490 went 鈥榦n ads without disclaimers鈥�, the report said.
This far exceeded the totals for the parties of Babis and Prime Minister Petr Fiala, the report said, calling this 鈥榓 disturbing instance of abuse of the existing regulations鈥�.
It found that SPD spent more than 10 times the amount of Babis鈥檚 and Fiala鈥檚 parties on ads that were displayed without the proper disclosures.
鈥楾here are myriad reasons鈥� not to give a full disclaimer on ads, the report鈥檚 author Benjamin Shultz told AFP.
But 鈥榠n more nefarious cases鈥� it may be 鈥榯o conceal who may be financing a particularly hateful, false or inflammatory ad campaign鈥�, he said.
The Meta Ad Library does not contain details on the ads concerned and their reach cannot be fully analysed, said the report, which did not provide the number of ads involved.
But ads costing around 10,000 euros ($11,740) 鈥榗ould potentially reach upwards of one million people,鈥� Shultz said.
The report noted that all three parties examined posted some ads without the proper disclosures, but the percentage for Okamura鈥檚 party was 鈥榩roportionally... a far larger amount of money鈥攁round 3.3 percent of the total ad spend鈥�.
It said this proportion was a 鈥榗lear outlier鈥�, looking not just at the Czech elections but also parties contesting recent elections in Poland and Germany.
SPD did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.
The report called for Meta to 鈥榖e held to account for enabling this level of opacity that clearly violates its terms of service and European law鈥�.
A Meta spokesperson said the company was 鈥榠nvestigating these reports鈥� and has 鈥榓lready taken action on a number of ads for violating our ad Policies鈥�.
The report comes as Meta has moved to ban political advertising on its platforms in the European Union in protest at new rules seeking increased transparency.
The Facebook and Instagram owner has called the new rules coming into force in the region on October 10 鈥榰nworkable鈥�.
