Social Media and Political Advertising

 



We've seen technology and media evolve rapidly in the past two decades, including the consequential evolution of political advertisement. Social media has proved to be an effective platform for candidates to reach out to voters through ads, which don't need rigorous fact-checking for sites like Facebook and Twitter. During the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent over $81 million just on Facebook ads alone. When faced (ha) with the reality that they serve as a conduit for misleading and even straight-up false information, Facebook has been notorious for claiming they are a neutral platform. While this seems to be a fair argument when taken at face value, the reality is that their algorithms are not as neutral as they claim to be. While lies about a candidate or a political issue in general is nothing new, the ability to easily spread them en masse is. 

To further complicate things, sites like Facebook and Youtube (even though they offer a live-video service) is not considered a broadcaster by the F.C.C. Consequently, they were exempt from disclosure laws until December 2017. The Honest Ads Act, introduced by Democratic Senator Klobuchar with Lindsey Graham as a co-sponsor, was created to ensure that political advertisements online would be held to the same standards as those in print and television. Alas, it was blocked by Senate Republicans (shocker!). The core of the bill was incorporated into the For the People Act, which was again blocked by Senate Republicans. This act would have closed the loophole that allowed Russia to use internet ads to influence the 2016 election. 

In November of 2020, Facebook and Google banned political ads to help mitigate the spread of fake news, which was a leap from their previous laissez-faire attitude. However, in May of 2021, Facebook announced it would lift the ban, which has proven to be as effective as a bandaid on a bullet wound. 

So now the country is wondering: where do we go from here? Should social media companies take the initiative to at least fact-check political content on their platforms? While some may argue it infringes on free speech, I think that would be a difficult legal argument to make considering speech wouldn't be hindered by the government. Preferably a similar act to the Honest Ads Act would get through Congress, but would that even be possible with the Republicans (suspiciously) stonewalling it? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Comments

  1. Anh-Thu DoApril 8, 2022 at 8:49 PM

    Social media algorithms are far from neutral. I actually talked a bit about this on my own blog. The algorithms do much to encourage the proliferation of fake news and contribute greatly to political polarization. You're certainly right that slandering political candidates is no new strategy, but that being able to spread lies about them in the speed of light is new. I actually was never aware of the fact that FB and Google banned political ads, although the ban does seem short lived if FB lifted it after only 7ish short months. This was quite the informative read.

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