As election ads go digital, here’s why the law should keep up

According to perception, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the biggest digital advertising spender this election season. spent in Uttar Pradesh 5.2 crore on meta ads between December 2021 and March 2022, nearly seven times the runner-up, Samajwadi Party (SP). Though the Congress cut a disappointing figure in the final tally, it was not far behind the BJP even in Uttar Pradesh, where it was less likely.

The analysis considers advertisers who spent more than the cut-off amount- 50,000 more for Google 1,00,000 for meta—and those who can be officially linked to parties, their leaders or hired agencies. State-wise details were not available for Google Ads.

Among the parties lacking pan-India coverage, the SP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) appeared weak in the digital advertising game, but the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) were examples of the opposite. AAP spent heavily in the states where it saw itself in the field. The AITC, which contested mainly in Goa, was well ahead of the SP and the SAD, which contested in larger states.

surrogate ad

After an uproar about deceptive political advertising during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, the tech giant was forced to step up transparency efforts. However, subtly “surrogate” pages and groups still abound, often masquerading as neutral but favoring a particular party, yet eschewing Facebook’s algorithms. All parties benefit from such advertising, some more than others. Nearly 13% of pro-BJP advertising spend on Facebook in the period analyzed can be attributed to informal means that cannot be linked to the party, its leaders or hired agencies. The contribution of such accounts was about 9% for Congress and AAP.

This calls into question the competence of existing standards of disclosure and investigation. Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi said the electoral media policy does not allow surrogate campaigning and the same applies to social media. He said that just because it is difficult to implement for online advertisements, does not mean that it should not be implemented.

digital share

Online advertising spends vary by election and party, but the figures point to an increasing trend. In 2020, the BJP allocated at least 4.6% of its alleged election spending in Delhi to Google ads alone. (This cannot be calculated for the recent elections as the total election expenditure figures are yet to be revealed.) The 2021 Tamil Nadu elections were the costliest since at least mid-2019. google ad spend,

This analysis is quite conservative due to cut-off amounts and since it can exclude ads that are difficult to link to a political party due to deceptive online tools.

“The layered and complex tools used for campaigning on social media make it difficult to estimate the total online advertising spend by a particular party,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder, Association for Democratic Reforms. Social media firms may not have much incentive to crack down on such ads, as they generate great revenue.

global scenario

Many countries have now realized that social media has made the old rulebooks on political propaganda obsolete. In 2019, New Zealand amended its electoral law To “stop misleading anonymous online ads” the European Commission is bringing Laws to ensure transparency In the source and purpose of advertising as well as in combating propaganda and interference.

Forget online advertising, according to the Idea Political Finance Database, there is usually a limit on media advertising in only 40 countries during elections. Only 12 have set any sort of limit on online political ads. India neither has a border. Nor do political parties have any limit on the total election expenditure.

The dangers of micro-targeting of fake news and propaganda in the digital age demand strict laws on political advertisements in India. However, the political class may not find the impetus for such reforms, and even the willingness and ability of the electoral authorities to be compromised over the years, Chhokar said.