Microtargeting involves sending out ad campaigns to very specific target groups. Social media and other online publishers collect hundreds of details about our lives that advertisers can use to target selectively. “It can be very innocent,” explains Leon Trapman. “For example, the Partij voor de Arbeid (Labour Party) has run an advertisement about gas extraction that is only shown to Facebook users in Groningen.”
But it can also be much more focused, by targeting specific personal characteristics. “For example, a conservative party can create advertisements that are only seen by young men who play tennis.” The audience reached is a lot smaller than it would be through posters displayed in every bus shelter, but you do reach your target group directly.
Personal Interests
Microtargeting offers many opportunities for political parties. After all, each target group has its own personal interests: students are generally not interested in advertisements about mortgage interest deduction and older people could not care less about student public transport cards. But this also has its risks: with an extensive microtargeting campaign, each party can have a different main focus for each target group. One person might see advertisements about the fight against discrimination every day, while another might see advertisements about tax relief for entrepreneurs. It instantly makes election campaigns a lot less transparent.
In the Netherlands, we strive for free and fair elections. However, the impact of social media on elections can be tremendous, as Brexit and the US presidential election have shown. Partly for this reason, the Staatscommissie Parlementair Stelsel (state commission on the parliamentary system), led by Johan Remkes, made several recommendations in 2018 to strengthen democracy. Dutch parties are relatively free to do as they please. The underlying idea is that we have great faith in the judgment of voters, who can decide for themselves what is and is not acceptable and whether that influences their vote. But what if a party's campaign is less transparent?
Leon Trapman specialised in freedom of speech and sees microtargeting as a remarkable outcome of this. He has been working as a PhD student since 2019, investigating how new developments support (or undermine) this freedom. “We want fair, free elections in the Netherlands, but what is required to make that happen? To what extent can you regulate this without getting in the way of that freedom of speech, and in what way are you protected as a voter? After all, microtargeting adds a whole new dynamic to the traditional election campaign.”
Bus Shelters
The State Commission recommended providing more transparency in 2018. “It is seen as a major concern that political parties use microtargeting to evade public scrutiny. Until now, campaigns have been conducted almost exclusively in public: everyone can see a bus shelter. A lot is allowed in Dutch campaigns as long as we know what is happening. This is evident now with the call for transparency in finances: “if a party or politician receives large donations from individuals or companies, we want openness about it.”
But how are we going to enforce that transparency? “In any case, you are going to limit political parties in their freedom to operate,” Trapman argues, even if you “only” require transparency. “It also remains to be seen how we will achieve this transparency. Do you want to force social media companies to disclose this information, as is already happening in part, or is it up to the parties themselves to be open about this? A code of conduct on transparency in political advertisements is now in place. This has been signed by most of the parties, and they have promised not to violate ethical boundaries. However, it does not say outright what those ethical boundaries are, it doesn't include penalties for violators, and no one will explicitly supervise them.”
Controversial Topics
Supervision is another controversial issue that has yet to be resolved. “The State Commission noted that this requires a high degree of expertise with respect to digital campaign techniques, but also indicated that this does not currently exist in the government. And while the supervision of party funding now lies with the Minister of the Interior, I would find it odd if a minister were to supervise the specific campaigns of other parties. We need to have a conversation in the Netherlands about what political parties should and can do. Parties who want to curb the power of big tech companies, however, will likely have to do so in collaboration with the European Union.”
“Transparency will not solve everything, but it can paint a clearer overall picture. We do not actually know the level of microtargeting, how many people see these ads, or how political parties determine the target audience for a particular ad," Trapman points out. “If parties or social media companies are more transparent about this, we can better determine whether and what restrictions are needed. With more data, media, journalists, and others can visualise what the exact scope is.”
The United States
For now we have to make do with estimates, but fortunately the impact of microtargeting still seems quite limited. Research by NRC and others shows that most parties in the Netherlands are running less than a few hundred different campaigns. However, that is still a lot more than the three advertisements that parties used to produce in the Zendtijd voor Politieke Partijen (broadcasting time for political parties), and the number is expected to increase considerably in the run-up to the elections. Nevertheless, it is nothing compared to the United States, where microtargeting is already widely used. By October 2020, Trump and Biden combined had 200,000 different ad campaigns running on Facebook. If you include other social media as well as independent action groups, it adds up to millions of different campaigns.
Trapman does not expect that we will have to deal with similar practices in the Netherlands. “This is largely due to stricter privacy laws. Political parties are not allowed to collect information about voters at will here; they are limited to a select set of characteristics. Moreover, the sums involved in the United States are many times greater. Campaigning is much more intense in the US as there are only two political parties to choose from.”
Nevertheless, the current situation presents interesting dichotomies. “For example, you see a party like D66 spending a lot on ads on social media, but at the same time shaming companies like Facebook and the large amounts of user data they collect.” So should you come across another political ad in the next few weeks that targets you as a 31-year-old man interested in wind energy, Italian food, and Taylor Swift's third album, realise that it frustrates the advertiser as much as it frustrates you.
Image: Mohamed Hassan via Pixabay