While Facebook and Google are going to keep rolling in cash from political ads, Facebook has the most to gain despite Google’s larger cut of the digital ad marketplace. The personalized ad targeting mechanisms Facebook has in place has created some favoritism among political candidates on both sides of the aisle. Even more so, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken a “no apologies” stance in favor of political advertising, with no regard to whether they are factual or not. Zuckerberg feels limitations on political ads would be considered censorship of free speech.
While Google has more stringently regulated political ads, blocked them in select markets including Canada and even cracked down on questionable spots on YouTube, they have avoided shutting down paid political activities, especially that of paid advertising. They are, however, not perfect as they have taken down hundreds of political campaign ads over the summer, such as the ones below: Spotify and Twitter, not to mention their hyperpartisan executives, claim that going in the opposite direction by banning political ads was attributed to earning less from those ads, making it easier to take the hit for the ban. The case might be true for Spotify — barely 10% of overall revenues come from advertising while subscription fees pay the majority of the platform’s bills — and political advertising wasn’t allowed in most markets in the first place. This came from the music streaming platform’s latest annual report. However, Twitter has paid the price for its more stringent policies, with the markets punishing the social media platform for holding ethics at a higher priority than stances that allow for the maximization of profits.Snapchat has held the middle ground by taking a moderate approach, choosing not to tune out politics altogether. Unlike Facebook, they are working to make sure their election ads are factual. CEO Evan Spiegel has even noted their crucial role, given so many new voters are on the platform:Jack Dorsey adds third job as anti-Facebook hero. #Twitter boss banned political ads & did more than Mark Zuckerberg to prevent silencing of Hong Kong protesters. Markets focus on other qualities. Twitter has severely underperformed. #Facebook. https://t.co/N5nI3SbVJN #TWTR #FB pic.twitter.com/DsisK2FfbW
— Holger Zschaepitz (@Schuldensuehner) December 23, 2019
I think what we try to do is create a place for political ads on our platform, especially because we reach so many young people and first-time voters we want them to be able to engage with the political conversation, but we don’t allow things like misinformation to appear in that advertising.Currently, only the Trump campaign and the Democratic campaign of Pete Buttigieg have utilized Snapchat ads to any significant degree. With Twitter and Spotify out of the game for 2020, some more campaign cash could be coming their way soon.
Jake Leonard, a broadcast media and journalism veteran, is the editor-in-chief of Heartland Newsfeed. Leonard is also GM and program director of Heartland Newsfeed Radio Network, wrestling editor and contributing writer for Ambush Sports, a contributing writer for My Sports Vote and Midwest Sports Network, and a former contributor to Bleacher Report and Overtime Heroics. He resides at home in Nokomis, Ill. with his dog Buster.