Google announced that it will revise its political advertising policy and strengthen regulations on political advertising, including targeted advertising. This reform will be implemented around the world from the end of the year and January 2020 in the UK ahead of the general election.
Political advertising is not legally regulated in the United States. Ahead of the presidential election to be held in November next year, election campaigns using political advertisements on the Internet are expected to be fierce, and companies are strengthening regulations on political advertisements. In October, Twitter announced a full ban on political advertising, which made it a hot topic.
Scott Spencer, vice president of product management and advertising at Google, said he wanted to restore voters’ confidence in political advertising, which might appear to be a Google advertising platform, given the recent concerns and discussions about political advertising and the importance of trust shared by democratic processes. The intention to change the regulation for
The Google advertising platform provides political advertisers with three types of search ads that appear on Google when they search for specific topics and candidate names, YouTube ads that appear on YouTube videos, and display ads that appear on websites.
Until now, Google has not allowed political advertisements for micro-targeting, which has identified personal hobbies and behavior patterns and advertised. It is targeting ads based on voter records and political affiliations. However, with this change in political advertising policy, targeting political advertising is limited to age, gender, and region of residence. According to Google, contextual ads that deliver ads to people who read and read economics articles are still allowed.
In addition, advertisements using fake news, such as misleading expressions and arguments, are prohibited because they participate in elections and democratic processes and greatly undermine trust. Political debates are an important part of democracy, and not everyone can confront every political argument, objection, or idea. Therefore, it is expected that the number of political advertisements handled by Google will be very limited, but it will respond to obvious violations. They also expressed their intention to tighten regulations on the content of political advertising.
Google, which reflects the transparency of political advertising in its policy, has also released a transparency report for election ads in the US, EU, and India, detailing the advertisement content, advertisers, advertising costs, number of people who viewed the advertisement, and advertisement targeting details. From December 3rd, Google made it clear that it will expand the scope of its transparency policy in the United States and apply it to local elections as well as state elections.
Google announced that the political advertising policy changes will be carried out in the UK by the end of the year and globally on January 6, 2020. As of June 2018, Google’s political advertising business has grown to more than $127 million in the US alone. Although it is not possible to ban all political advertisements such as Twitter, it is analyzed that this revision of political advertisement policy can have a great impact on the Google advertising ecosystem. Related information can be found here .