This week, our friends at the Center on Technology Policy (CTP) released a new publication that looks closely at the state of programmatic political advertising beyond Google and Meta.
An overview of the key points:
Programmatic advertising platforms are projected to serve billions of dollars in ads in the 2022 midterms, yet most scholarly, journalistic, or regulatory consideration has focused only on Google and Meta. The report offers one of the first in-depth examinations of how political ad policies and enforcement across the programmatic ad system are shaping political expression in the US.
CTP found that in comparison to the prominent tech platforms, most ad tech companies have minimal policies on political ads, and the ads policies that do exist are often broadly written. Most companies offer little transparency on enforcement or ad content.
Building on these findings, CTP offers a series of recommendations for programmatic ad companies, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and policymakers. Here are three:
Programmatic advertising companies should publish clear political ad policies that cover content, disclaimers, targeting, transparency, and accountability.
Prohibit ads intended to suppress voting, such as false information regarding voting location, date, processes, or ID requirements. Programmatic ads companies should prohibit these ads, and Congress should pass a federal law criminalizing voter suppression.
The FEC should create a federal political ad archive, and states should create archives for state and local elections. Ad platforms should build tools that make it easy for advertisers to contribute to these archives.
Publications and appearances
“When we have platforms like TRUTH Social where there’s not moderation to the extent that we see in other places, people are going to push the boundaries of that…We see these problems everywhere. But we see them more often on platforms where content moderation is not a priority and there aren’t resources dedicated to it.” Shannon McGregor spoke to TIME about TRUTH Social and its content moderation policies.
“The administration has reformed target areas where abuses are the most egregious: bad student loan servicing companies and predatory for-profit colleges…And this relief comes for poor and working-class families just as they start tuning in to midterm races.” Tressie McMillan Cottom’s latest New York Times piece discusses the Biden administration’s long anticipated student loan cancellation plans.
Affiliate Gabriel Nicholas put out a white paper with the Center for Democracy & Technology about getting social media companies to share data with researchers.
Coming soon
September 13, 5:30pm ET: Can We Talk?: Student Thoughts on Free Expression at UNC
September 13, 3:30-4:30pm CDT: University of Wisconsin Event: Campaign Fiance & Election Misinformation. Daniel Kreiss is one of the panelists!
September 15-17: The Digital Sociology Collective (un)Conference lead by co-organizers Leslie Jones, Francesca Tripodi, and Rachel Durso. Details and registration here. Please register by September 12.
September 16, 10-11am ET: UNC’s School of Information and Library Science’s 2022 Henderson Lecture: A Conversation with David S. Ferriero, the 10th Archivist of the United States.
September 21: The Center for Media Law and Policy’s First Amendment Day. The CITAP panel starts at 4:00pm.
September 22: Francesca Tripodi presents The Propagandists’ Playbook with a Q&A featuring Victor Ray. Register to attend in person!
September 23: The CITAP fall speaker series kicks off with Victor Ray discussing his new book On Critical Race Theory. In-person and livestream attendees are welcome! RSVP requested.
Rest of Web
🎉 A Washington State judge ruled that Facebook repeatedly violated a state political ad disclosure law and Shannon McGregor provided expert testimony for this case!
The Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology put out a call for papers for their special issue “Healthier Information Ecosystems”.
UNC’s School of Information and Library Science has three faculty positions open. Spread the word!