Costing less than $1,000 to build, the technology, which works as a plug-in on desktop web browsers
and anonymizes users’ personal information, was created because the social network does not share information on political ads shown to its more than 36 million users in Britain, roughly half the country’s population.
“The people deserve some sense of what’s going on.”
The Conservative Party was second, despite the political party’s pledge to spend 1 million pounds, or $1.3 million, on social media messaging.
He and his team are categorizing potential online misinformation in a digital database, tracking how these false reports spread across social media
and the wider web and conducting focus groups to gauge the impact on voters’ decisions
“We encourage any and all candidates, groups and voters to use our platform to engage in the elections.”
For Ben Scott, such issues bring back mixed memories of the American presidential
election, when he was a digital consultant for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
“Wherever politics is concerned, there needs to more transparency.”
And concern has been growing since the American presidential election about the company’s
role in campaigns, including about how politically charged fake news is spread online.
In response, the company says its roughly two billion users worldwide have complete control over which ads they are shown on the network, and
that it is the responsibility of individual political parties to comply with their countries’ electoral laws.
