Targeted political ads

The election of 2016 taught us just how damaging targeted political ads can be. Political ads are a huge business and an important part of political campaigns, but the ads that appear on social media come with several serious problems. The most significant problem, in my opinion, is that voters are not aware that they have been targeted for what they see based on their past behavior and biases. Since targeted ads are not identified as such, the assumption that everyone is receiving the same information is damaging. You are being shown what someone believes will manipulate you without your conscious awareness of this intent.

I just read that Senator Wyden has proposed banning targeted political ads on social media. You would receive ads, but these ads would be ads distributed to all. I am skeptical that this proposal will receive serious consideration. A compromise I think would help would be to require that any political ad require the identification of the funding source. This is similar to what you experience on television. While not always informative because political action groups often have generic and positive-sounding names, at least consumers would have the opportunity to search for information about the organization responsible for the ads they view.

A second and more serious problem with the targeted ads and actually any political ad or meme is the sharing of this information. It is likely our friends share our biases and the constant sharing of content with a common theme within a group of similarly oriented individuals is that those in the group again fail to be exposed to content with a different orientation. Magnifying this problem is the tendency of sharing the content that is most likely to get attention and shares/likes. Hate and extremism are great ways to get attention.

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