What is Facebook's Role in the 2017 Election?
May 03, 2017
Recently, Facebook has admitted for the first time that the government and other organisations have exploited its technology to directly target voters and sway their vote. Want to know how they go about targeting you?
Digital campaign experts have created a program which allows you to view how messages from political parties arrive in Facebook feeds. The free software is called ‘Who Targets Me?’ This tool can be added to your Google Chrome browser. It will allow users of Facebook to track how the main parties insert political messages into their feed. Political parties are using data that’s based on the personal information that the user has already made public online; the likes, mentions and check-ins. For example, in the EU referendum, people who mentioned they like surfing would receive a message about the value of EU regulations on beach pollution, The Guardian.
Political Facebook ads were named a key tactic during the 2016 EU referendum. In fact, a massive £1billion was spent by the ‘Vote Leave’ campaigners on digital adverts, which were mostly via Facebook. Campaign Director, Dominic Cummings, has claimed 98% of its £6.8 million budget was spent on digital, The Guardian. Facebook is set to play a massive part in the upcoming election to the same extent.
Who Targets Me? Comes after both Conservative and Labour parties are to plan extensive Facebook campaigns before the election on the 8th June. It’s estimated that in 2015, Conservatives spent £1.2 million on digital compared to the Labour party’s £160,000. It’s understood that Labour is willing to up their spending to £1million this time around.
In conclusion, the tool ‘Who Targets Me?’ aims to enable voters to keep track on which political parties are spending money to target them via inserted posts in Facebook newsfeeds. The fact is Facebook could easily throw the election if it wasn’t for the UK regulations on spending allowances for parties. However, this tool poses the questions; are they respecting national v constituency spending limits? Are they discriminating against a particular group of the population?
It’s time to throw some light on the dark ad, Who Targets Me?
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