TRANSPARENCY TOP SPENDER:

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Why does this matter? The European Commission (and national governments) have been pushing Facebook to improve transparency over political ads. Social media is where digital political campaigns now overwhelmingly reside, so not knowing the basics about how such activities work is a major problem for trying to regulate them. And with updates to electoral rules to include a digital focus still dragging, getting it right on Facebook (which represents the lion’s share of political online ad spend, globally) is a basic requirement ahead of future elections, in Europe and beyond.

In response, Facebook says it’s done more than most to combat the worst offenders, and has invested millions of euros to improve political transparency on its networks. It also rejected some researchers’ claims, including complaints that ads on Instagram and those focused around photos and videos were not accessible through the company’s transparency tools.

This week’s biggest new telegram data transparency listing is Stowarzyszenie Instytut Kościuszki (IK), “a nonprofit research center founded in 2000″ with a mission to “promote the socio-economic development and security of Poland as an active member of the EU and NATO.” IK lists €836,176 in costs covered by the register. Plus there’s EUREGIO, a transnational association dedicated to “simplifying cooperation between the Netherlands and Germany and achieving added value for both sides,” which lists €670,281 in costs covered by the register.

BY THE NUMBERS — WHO HAS THE MOST EU LOBBYING PASSES? FleishmanHillard has 59, BCW 42, FIPRA 32, FTI 30, APCO 27, Interel 27, Teneo 24, EUTOP 23, Brunswick 21, GPlus 18. That information comes from the EU Transparency Register.