About Who Targets Me
The digital age has amplified and exacerbated a whole host of issues in our world, not the least of which is democracy and its norms.
A lack of transparency around political advertising and other political content has led to an increase in skepticism about politics, institutions and democracy.
Politicians, corporations and interest groups spend millions on digital campaigns in attempts to persuade voters all the while accumulating detailed data about voters. These campaigns are bolstered by the business models of digital giants like Facebook, who rely on advertising.
Some people argue that this is nothing new. We disagree. Political adverts on social media are cheaper and more targeted than any other advertising in history. We think the best way to campaign for transparency is to create it.
Who Targets Me was created to open dialogues and campaign for more transparency in the digital age. Our key mission is to create a new set of norms and laws where:
- Social media companies publish comprehensive information about all political advertising content, targeting and spending
- Laws governing elections are updated to account for data-driven digital campaigning
- Regulators are given tough new powers to enforce these laws
But we aren’t just a policy group, you can help us! By downloading our (privacy conscious) browser extension you help us create a crowdsourced data set that is building real evidence which we can use to better understand the shifting issues and threats to our democracy.
Who Targets Me are a small group of activists creating and managing a crowdsourced global database of political adverts placed on social media.
We were founded by Sam Jeffers and Louis Knight Webb in 2017 during the UK elections to monitor the use of online political ads in real time and provide analysis of their intended impact. The Who Targets Me plug-in has now been installed by over 50,000 users worldwide in more than 100 countries and 20 languages.
Since 2017 we have worked on over 10 elections worldwide including in Europe, the Middle East, North and South America.
Our work is/has been supported by generous support from small donations, along with the following foundations:
We have worked in collaboration with (in no particular order):
