Policy

  • The Ad Transparency ”Triple Decker”

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    Over the past couple of years, we’ve written and contributed to thinking about increasing political ad transparency, from a self-regulatory and regulatory perspective, but also from a technical perspective, where a precise description of what can help voters read and interpret political advertising is now significantly clearer. Gradually, in response to negative media coverage and…

  • About the Conservatives ”Support The Brexit Deal” ads

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    On 29th November, the Conservatives launched 152 ads about Brexit. They are promoting seven different videos, each with a  slightly different angle on the proposed deal. All have the same call to action – for people to visit https://www.backthebrexitdeal.com and email their MP, asking them to support the Prime Minister’s deal next week. On 30th November, they…

  • Dark ads are finally dead

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    Some things that have been bubbling along for a while moved forward last week. First, Facebook and Twitter launched new ad transparency initiatives. You can now view the ads that accounts are running. ‘Dark ads’ are dead. Neither implementation is perfect. Discovery is still hard (you don’t know what you’re looking for, particularly for campaigns…

  • Advice for parties and campaigns

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    Technology and data are changing the way elections work, but there’s not enough debate on the part of campaigns and their consultants about whether the new techniques they’re adopting are a good thing for democracy. I was at a conference for political consultants last week. Those present worked on polling and political messaging all over…

  • How much Facebook makes, per user, per minute spent on Facebook

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    (If you’re interested in political ads, why not install our browser extension, which helps you understand more about how campaigns use them) One of the questions we often get asked is how much is spent on ads in political campaigns. In the UK, political parties must report a breakdown of their expenditure. It’s therefore possible…