Facebook Just Handed Trump the Election…Unless We Take These Steps
Facebook announced it would not allow new political ads for the last week of the election as part of a series of announcements it made to avoid dealing with the more significant issue — organic disinformation and blatantly false ads. This is part of a larger effort that Facebook and other advertising companies, such as Google, have been partaking in for the past couple of years. They were solving for a problem that doesn’t exist. It wasn’t the ads in 2016 that were the problem. It was the organic disinformation that took advantage of flawed algorithms. Facebook and Google, and others even made positive steps following the 2016 election by increasing the transparency in paid placements and making it even less likely that nefarious “dark posts” would manipulate us. However, organic disinformation has only grown as a problem with even members of Congress now sharing doctored videos. Microtargeted ads is a critical tactic for campaigns, especially less-funded ones, to combat the disinformation that is bombarding their voters. Google already removed that ability for political campaigns. Facebook, up until now, had only made it more challenging to use some of the most valuable targeting options, but with their recent announcement, they just handed Trump the election.
Why do new ads matter the last week of the election? There is an adage in politics that a day is a lifetime. That is especially true that final week. Even though early voting and mail-in voting has grown (even before the pandemic), the last days are when most people are paying the closest attention to the election and when the slightest change in the political environment can alter the outcome in a tight race. News of George W. Bush’s DUI came out less than a week before the 2000 election. The Comey letter came out a little more than a week before the 2016 election. The best campaigns can ride the winds of political change in the final days. The most effective ads are the ones that can tap into those shifts. During the 2016 Michigan primary election, there was a sudden shift in news coverage in the final days that allowed us to run ads we had previously tested as being effective with a critical segment of voters. That last-minute ad shift (the Bernie ads team was up all night the weekend before making changes) helped with the last-minute push we needed to win a shocking Primary victory and rekindle the campaign.
Facebook has shown its desire to aid the Trump campaign this entire cycle. It is, after all, a business, and Trump is one of its top customers. Or is it because a corrupt Trump administration isn’t one they want to get on the wrong side of? There is also a lot of incentive for them to see Republicans retain some power in DC. After-all a split government will help prevent anyone from breaking up their monopoly. They’re already taking radical actions to fight other governments, like in Australia, from hurting their bottom line. Despite Zuckerberg’s original claims that Facebook was about changing the world for the better, it has evolved into a way to make as much money possible, as is the case with any monopoly. What’s saddest is that it didn’t have to be this way. There is a way for them to make money AND benefit the world. They could have headed off their perceived need to make ads the boogeyman by focusing their efforts on increased transparency and adopting a zero-tolerance for blatantly false political ads or posts. Similarly, Tik Tok made a significant mistake in outright banning political ads to avoid this. Can you imagine how much organizing could be done on their ad platform right now, tapping into younger voters outraged by Trump’s blatant disregard for their community?
What can we do now? Facebook and others aren’t going to change their approach of blaming ads for the organic problems they refuse to address. We need to pressure them on one of the reasons ads for their platforms became so critical to begin with. Social media platforms need to stop limiting the organic reach of political candidates and nonprofit organizations focused on voting issues. And we need to start rapidly building those audiences to compete with the massive disinformation machine that Trump has made on Facebook and other platforms. Both sides will get full reach, but we will be able to combat their disinformation better when our posts aren’t limited to 5% of our followers.
It will also be critical to address who our messengers are. We can’t let perfect messengers get in the way of good. You may remember there was much controversy before over whether a progressive should be talking to Joe Rogan, but regardless of what you think of him, he has an audience we need to reach, and a lot of them aren’t watching CNN. On top of having expanded organic reach for political candidates and non-partisan nonprofits, we need to make sure we are spending more time with people and media organizations that have the audience that wouldn’t typically follow political news that closely. Sock puppets won’t work either. Authenticity is key to developing the necessary trust to break through the confirmation bias of those manipulated by the Trump machine. It’s never easy to change your digital playbook less than two months before an election, but if we don’t adapt to this change now, we will endure threats even more incredible than what we have faced in 2020.
