A question that’s asked a lot, particularly as discussions about how to regulate political ads rumble on, is “how should we decide what is – and isn’t – a political ad?” The answer matters because legislators and regulators – rightly – want to impose some costs on political ads in the name of trust and […]

The UK Government has published a new Elections Bill. It has some good and important things in it, particularly with regard to digital ads, and some controversial and bad ones too. First thing to say is it contains a useful transparency measure – digital imprints. It’s good that paid digital election material will finally be […]

There’s new legislation being proposed in the US by Congresswoman Lori Trahan to increase advertising transparency.  It has lots of good things in it, including: Specific definitions of the data that should be disclosed, including targeting and engagement Development of common standards across platforms for disclosure Oversight of how it’s implemented If we ever wrote […]

How do you break a big problem – oversight of the big social media platforms – into a series of smaller, more manageable ones?

After the events of the last week in the US, many people are demanding the “regulation” of social media.

But amid that clamour… what is actually to be done?

Around many stars there is a so-called “goldilocks zone” where the temperature is just right for a planet to enjoy liquid water, and (perhaps) to support life. We think political advertising on social media also has a goldilocks zone. If you allow too many ads, you give unscrupulous campaigns the ability to microtarget voters, tell […]

What needs to happen next.

Writing about new things is exciting, but it’s not always where the action is.