Online Ad Targeting — A New Front Line in the Refugee Crisis
When he’s missing home, 17-year-old refugee Farid Rasuli will often go on YouTube and search for folk music in Dari, the Persian dialect of his native Afghanistan. Occasionally, before he can watch the video he wants, he has to sit through a pre-roll advertisement from the Australian Border Force.
Delivered by a stern-faced, camouflage-clad major general, the video advertisement is algorithmically targeted at speakers of certain languages — in this case, Dari — who are located in a transit country such as Indonesia, where Rasuli is awaiting resettlement. These people are part of the thousands of refugees who could be considering paying a smuggler to take them the final odd 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles) of their journey across the Indian Ocean to Australia, where they want to seek asylum. “Don’t waste your money or risk your life,” the general warns while images of Australian troops intercepting migrant boats roll in the background. “You will be intercepted and turned back.”
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