We’re making online political ads more transparent
…with a tool to track the ads you see, data and analysis for academics, researchers and journalists, and advocacy for better policy from platforms, regulators and governments.
Latest policy and research
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The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation
More >>: The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulationOnline political advertising didn’t decide the Saxony-Anhalt election. But its disappearance probably helped shape the result.
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Better regulation for digital political advertising in the UK
More >>: Better regulation for digital political advertising in the UKThe 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.
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Restoring the Integrity of UK Election Campaigns
More >>: Restoring the Integrity of UK Election CampaignsPublic confidence in the fairness of UK elections is being eroded by opaque money flows, globalised digital campaigning, and outdated regulatory frameworks.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.
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Changes to Trends (Nov 2025)
More >>: Changes to Trends (Nov 2025)Over the last few months, we’ve been working on a major update to our Trends political advertising tracker. From today, those changes are live. Here’s an explanation of what we’ve done: 1. Expanded data access now requires a free login Trends tracks activity by over 125,000 political advertisers, across more than 1,000 political parties and 60 countries. It’s a lot…
What we do
Trends: Our ad data platform
Live tracking of online ad spending, targeting and content from 200k+ pages from 1500+ parties in 60+ countries. >>
Browser extension
Installed by over 100,000 people to help them learn more about the political ads they see and aid scientific research. >>
Training and consulting
Helping people develop their own research projects to better understand the ways technology and democracy interact. >>
Understand social media
Building ecologically valid studies to learn how users respond to changes in platform design, content and algorithms. >>
Policy and analysis
Developing and promoting ideas that improve trust and transparency in election campaigns in the digital age. >>
Newsletter
Full Disclosure is our regular newsletter on what parties and candidates are doing with their digital political ads. >>
Tools and projects
Trends: Our ad data platform
- 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
- Explore the data and sign up for an account
Our Browser Extension
- Sees the political social media ads you see (nothing else)
- Helps put them in context
- Donates them for research
- Install for Chrome, Firefox or Edge
Understanding social media
- 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
- Learn more
Sign up to Full Disclosure
Our newsletter on how political campaigns use ads, and what it all means.