Campaign finance nerds, do you know of a way to track indirect Facebook spending by candidates? In other words, if my campaign committee pays ABC DIGITAL CONSULTING a million dollars and they spend half of that running Facebook ads, is their expenditure a public record?
-
-
Because indirect expenditures aren't tracked by the FEC, the only source we have for what politicians spend on Facebook is... Facebook. This is part of the larger pattern where only Facebook has the data we would need to make informed decisions about regulating its activities.pic.twitter.com/5zZZnBdXXm
Show this thread -
A drawback to relying on Facebook's disclosure tools is that Facebook lies all the time about everything.
Show this thread -
A better way to think of yesterday's hearing is Facebook explaining itself to its largest customers. The 28 senators in the subcommittee investigating the company have spent at least $21,086,192 on Facebook ads, according to Facebook's reporting tool.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F5axTVxhI-qvOIXU9cw_2mTcVCBiTAt0m1Xao2ePomY/edit#gid=0 …
Show this thread -
The numbers Facebook gives vary in interesting ways. Senator Warnock gave Facebook the most money, nearly five million dollars, beating out even those colleagues on the subcommittee who ran for president. John Thune appears to be the lowest spender, having given all of $230.
Show this thread -
To choose another example, Jon Ossoff (who is not on the subcommittee that held hearings yesterday) spent $2,775,776 on Facebook ads and won by a margin of about 55,000 votes. How can one expect him to vote to regulate or sanction a company he likely owes his Senate seat to?
Show this thread -
The point I'm raising isn't about hypocrisy, but the fundamental conflict of interest that comes from having the only elected officials who can exercise regulatory authority wholly dependent on one company for online political advertising.
Show this thread -
Facebook's political ads are a small contributor to revenue (~3% in 2020) but form an invaluable regulatory armor by making American politicians irrespective of party dependent on the continued success of the company's unregulated business model.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
It’s true that FB critics buy a lot of FB ads, and the best data available is through the FB Ad Library. Campaigns can use consulting firm payments to mask other ad buys on their FEC, but the Ad Library reveals their FB spend and more.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.