Ban micro-targeted online political advertising

The recent Cambridge Analytica investigation by the DCMS Select Committee showed the extent to which the lack of any meaningful regulation of political advertising online is an existential threat to our democracy. Anyone can turn up and post politically themed ads, targeting particular demographics using the same tools that conventional advertisers use to sell their products and services, inside or outside of a designated election period.

It’s high time we did something about this due to the chilling effect it is having on democracy and the political process.

Suggested approach: Online advertising platforms to be required to screen targeted ads for political content before they are accepted into their publishing pipeline. An example of a targeted ad would be something set to be shown to ‘all males aged 50 and above in Bristol.’ Targeted ads that are clearly political in nature would be rejected, but conventional non-targeted political ads may go ahead.

It should also be possible for end users to report an ad which slips through this screening process, as some inevitably will. After three such incidents in a twelve month period, the advertiser will be banned from advertising at all for another twelve months. These are simple technical changes that the major advertising networks (principally Google and Facebook) can be compelled to make as a condition of business in the UK.