political campaigns . Taming the dark forces

There is a dark side to digital advertising, especially in political campaigns. Can new moves by social media giant Facebook curb these?

Ahead of General Elections in India in 2019, Facebook has decided to roll out its global initiative aimed at bringing transparency in political advertising here, in a bid to avoid a repeat of what happened during the US elections two years ago.

At that time, Russian agents were alleged to have bought targeted ads focused on minority groups, and a furore broke out when it came to light how data mining company Cambridge Analytica had shared 87 million Facebook profiles for micro targeting of votes. The social media platform, which has in the past launched similar initiatives in the US, Brazil and the UK, will allow only “authorised” advertisers to run political ads. In addition, next year onwards, Facebook users in India will be able to have access to information about who has placed a particular political ad as well as the budget spent on placing that political advertisement.

Too complex to control

Experts feel that while this is a step in the right direction, the issue of “influence” in the social media era is far more complex and cannot just be dealt with by controlling political advertisements. Many feel it is time the government steps in to make social media platforms more accountable.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee General Secretary and spokesperson, Nivedith Alva says this move may not be enough to tackle surrogate political ads and other kinds of political content.

“While this move may be able to give some sort of actual numbers to the spends of recognised political parties… there is no way that one will be able to control/cap all the surrogate ads/content that too will be going out. Also, FB is accessible to everyone — rich or poor, educated or uneducated, city bred or rural — so how each one looks at content and reacts can never be judged by a common yardstick,” says Alva, adding that at the end of the day, it is important to remember that Facebook is also a business looking to generate profits.

“But it’s a start and, yes, all digital platforms need to keep a check on their algorithms and the content that they generate for end users. It would help immensely if, along with such measures, all social networks move much faster to remove hate-spewing content and content that is clearly derogatory across the board,” he says.

Digital spends to go up

The year 2014 was when the digital medium and technology was used in a significant manner for political advertisements and election campaigning in India. Media agencies believe social media is expected to play an even bigger role in campaigning in 2019.

Ashish Bhasin, Chairman and CEO-South Asia, Dentsu Aegis Network, says, “Our estimates are the digital spends by political parties will be up by nearly 100 per cent in 2019 compared to 2014.” He says factors such as fall in data costs, rising number of consumers who own smartphones plus the Jio effect are fuelling the growth of social media in the country. In addition, Indians are culturally social by nature, which makes platforms such as FB and Whatsapp very popular in the country.

Though he says it is a step in the right direction, Bhasin cautions that FB cannot have a “one size fits all” approach to solve such issues.

“Social media platforms will need to leverage technology such as AI and be a lot more dynamic in their response to challenges of fake content and unfair use,” he points out.

Nimesh Shah, co-founder and Head Maven, Windchimes Communications, says if enforced correctly, these measures may have a huge impact at a time when there is a pressing demand from governments across the globe to make Facebook more accountable.

“I believe this is a step to bring in increased transparency and accountability on the platform. In this revised process, anyone who wants to run political ads will first need to confirm their location and identity and give more details on who placed the ad. A lot of fake ads and misinformation will now be attributable and there will be a name and face attached to it,” he says.

Dealing with influencers

But what happens to politically motivated misinformation freely propagated by social media influencers?

Says Alva, “If someone is a verified personality and is putting out inaccurate posts, they need to be dealt with quickly and strictly. If that can be done with verified accounts, it should be easier to deal with unverified accounts even more strictly so that precedents are set.”

However, some others believe it is time an independent entity is formed to make social media platforms more responsible.

N Chandramouli, CEO at TRA Research, feels that social media platforms cannot be left to their own devices when it comes to transparency or accountability and that there is a need for a third-party independent agency or a government agency to ensure that they become more responsible.

COMMENT NOW