Policy

  • Building realtime maps

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    We’ve wanted to build realtime maps of where ads are being targeted for a long time. Ideally, we want to combine that with data about how much is being spent in particular places, and being able to show the political competition underway there. In 2024, we had our first go at doing that, where we…

  • Why do we keep running our browser extension?

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    Who Targets Me’s first product was our browser extension. Before Meta offered an ad library, it allowed us to crowdsource the political ads people were being targeted with and better explain which ads were showing up to different people in different places, and how those ads were targeted. It still does, but the extension now…

  • Should tech companies be forced to carry political ads?

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    On 27th November, Google announced it would stop carrying political ads in the EU before new political advertising regulations kick in next year. Google currently has a ”weak” definition of political ads (essentially they’re ads run by national parties and candidates during election periods), versus Meta’s rather stronger one (the wider ”political and issue ads”…

  • Google quits political ads in the EU – a quick reaction

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    In March, the EU adopted the text of a new regulation on political ads, designed to promote transparency and close off the period since 2016 where there’s been significant public and media concern about their misuse. The ”final” regulation wasn’t very final, serving more as a framework than a specific set of requirements, with much…

  • Why didn’t AI ’happen’ in 2024’s elections?

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    Dire predictions about deepfakes damaging elections in 2024 turned out to be a long way off the mark. The predictions mostly came from two camps. The first was politics people who don’t really understand technology. The second was technology people, particularly AI people, who don’t understand political campaigns. The reality was, for problematic generative AI…

  • Extending what the Who Targets Me browser extension does

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    Since 2017, Who Targets Me has focused on improving transparency in political advertising on Facebook, the dominant platform for paid online political messaging. With the help of the thousands of volunteers, who have donated their data, we’ve had a significant impact in how that platform implements transparency, and how policymakers have crafted new digital regulations.…