Tech Giants Now Share Details on Political Ads. What Does That Mean For You? (original) (raw)
Technology|Tech Giants Now Share Details on Political Ads. What Does That Mean For You?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/02/technology/03adarchive.html
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We tried out new tools from Facebook, Google and Twitter that let you look up campaign ads. Here’s what the databases can — and cannot — do.
Sept. 2, 2018
“Dark ads.” That is the catchall term researchers use to describe online political messages that keep people in the dark about why they were targeted with the ads, who paid for them or how much was spent.
Thousands of dark ads ran on Facebook around the 2016 presidential election in the United States and the British referendum on leaving the European Union. Some ads delivered divisive messages aimed at specific audiences. Some ads circulated misinformation — or told people not to vote.
But in recent months, in response to criticism from the public and lawmakers, Facebook, Google and Twitter have tried to shed more light on political ads. Each company began requiring political campaigns to label their ads more clearly. They also introduced searchable databases where users can look up political ads running on the companies’ services. Want to know details about Facebook ads tied to Representative Marsha Blackburn’s tight race to represent Tennessee in the Senate? They are there to see in the archives.
Some lawmakers may push for even more disclosure on Wednesday, when executives from Facebook and Twitter are expected to appear at a Senate hearing about trying to thwart foreign meddling in this year’s election. Here’s a quick primer on the archives, how you can use them and their limits.
What do the ad archives show?
Each company’s political ad archive works a bit differently and contains varying levels of detail about each ad. But they all allow users to look up current campaign ads for elected federal offices in the United States. And they all show the name of a political ad’s sponsor, how much was spent on the ads, when they were shown and how many times.
The Facebook archive contains political ads that have run on the company’s social network or Instagram. It includes ads for political candidates as well as for political issues like climate and education, and is searchable by a candidate’s name or by issue. The results show demographic data on the audience that saw the ad. You can find all of the political ads from a particular sponsor, too.
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