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Latest policy and research

The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation

Online political advertising didn’t decide the Saxony-Anhalt election. But its disappearance probably helped shape the result. >>
Better regulation for digital political advertising in the UK

The overall goal of political advertising reform and regulation in the UK should be to foster a transparent, trustworthy, diverse, and competitive political advertising market. Over more than a decade of study, our research has found that the benefits of digital political advertising generally outweigh the costs, but this gap could be (positively) widened with specific policy interventions. >>
Restoring the Integrity of UK Election Campaigns

Public confidence in the fairness of UK elections is being eroded by opaque money flows, globalised digital campaigning, and outdated regulatory frameworks. Without decisive, creative Government reform, elections will continue to be legally compliant but publicly distrusted – undermining democratic legitimacy. We set out ideas for overcoming the key challenges. >>

Live tracking of online ad spending, targeting and content from 200k+ pages from 1500+ parties in 60+ countries. >>

Installed by over 100,000 people to help them learn more about the political ads they see and aid scientific research. >>

Helping people develop their own research projects to better understand the ways technology and democracy interact. >>

Building ecologically valid studies to learn how users respond to changes in platform design, content and algorithms. >>

Developing and promoting ideas that improve trust and transparency in election campaigns in the digital age. >>

Full Disclosure is our regular newsletter on what parties and candidates are doing with their digital political ads. >>

Live tracking the spending, messaging and targeting of 200k+ advertisers in 60+ countries
Monitor change over time. Who’s up? Who’s down?
Dig into presidential races, referendums and local campaigns
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Allows researchers to run ecologically valid experimental studies with real content on real social media interfaces
Learn how users react to re-ranking, labelling, literacy interventions and exposure to different types of content
For quantitative and qualitative study
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Our newsletter on how political campaigns use ads, and what it all means.