INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Google has joined Twitter in revising its political ad rules ahead of what promises to be a brutal election season
But while the latter chose to ban political advertising altogether, Google is mainly limiting the ability to target political demographics,
and promises to take action against &demonstrably false claims.&
In a blog post Wednesday afternoon, the search giant explained the new
rules in a way that is clearly intended to be understood by a broad audience, not the ad-buying elite.
&Given recent concerns and debates
about political advertising, and the importance of shared trust in the democratic process, we want to improve voters& confidence in the
political ads they may see on our ad platforms,& wrote Scott Spencer, VP of product management at Google Ads.
The primary change, he
explained, will be the limitation of targeting terms that can be used for political advertising buys that appear in search, on display ads
and on YouTube.
Google knows an immense amount about every one of its users, and as such can display ads to people who like certain
products, are concerned with certain issues and so on
But starting in December, if the ad is political in nature, it will only be able to be targeted to age, general and postal code
(Notably, Twitter considers using ZIP codes µtargeting& and will not allow it for political content.)
That nice, but it should be noted
that such microtargeting may not be necessary for political issues, since advertisers can target search terms like &South San Jose city
council candidates& and they&re off to the races
They just can&t send ads to people because they&re a Democrat, a Republican, support marriage equality, handgun restrictions, etc… but
they can buy ads for the search terms &gay marriage,& &assault rifle ban& and other items
That kind of fundamental to search-based ad buys.
Twitter political ads ban is a distraction from the real problem with platforms
At least
it seems to be a step in the right direction — deep targeting for serious issues like that is not only unproven and controversial, but
also fundamentally creepy
Better to do without it.
Google also said that it already &against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claim—whether it a
claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has
died.&
As further examples of what it would not allow, it cited &misleading claims about the census process, and ads or destinations making
demonstrably false claims that could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process.& That puts rather
a fine point on it.
And as a warning to temper your expectations, Google noted that &no one can sensibly adjudicate every political claim,
counterclaim, and insinuation,& so it plans to take &very limited& action, only for &clear violations.&
Funnily enough, of all the
institutions on Earth, Google seems the one best suited to adjudicating content in that way
But &sensibly& is the key word here, and it is sensible for Google to avoid making promises it can&t keep.
Lastly, Google will be
expanding its election-related ad transparency reports to include &state-level candidates and officeholders, ballot measures, and ads that
mention federal or state political parties.& These will be publicly searchable like those for national candidates, as shown above.
That the
major platforms are moving at all on this question of money in politics is good, but it is hard to say how these restrictions — such as
they are — will affect how things play out
It unlikely this is the last we&ll hear from Google, Twitter or others on the topic.
