The Ads that Slip Through the Cracks: Undisclosed Political Ads on Facebook

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: In response to widespread criticism for rampant misinformation on their platform, in 2018 Facebook created an online ‘Ad Library’ intended to serve as a meaningful mechanism of transparency to the public. However, in reality, there have been a number of issues and criticisms with the Ad Library that undercut its ability to truly be an effective tool of accountability and transparency. One such issue is that some political ads are able to slip through Facebook’s automated filters without the required disclosure that details who paid for the ad. This project aims to investigate what kinds of political ads tend to slip through Facebook’s automated filters. Specifically, this paper explores why some undisclosed political ads garner a greater number of impressions than others, with a focus on the impact of the political-leaning and sentiment of the ad. Ultimately, I find that undisclosed political ads that take a strong political stance and utilize rhetoric that evokes a negative sentiment seem to be relatively successful at garnering more impressions than non-political, positive-sentiment ads.

Author	Doty, Leila
Thesis advisor	Bonica, Adam
Degree granting institution	Stanford University
Department	Public Policy Program

Subject	Political ads
Subject	Misinformation
Subject	Online ads
Subject	Facebook (Electronic resource)
Subject	Sentiment analysis
Subject	Facebook (Firm)
Subject	Stanford University
Subject	Humanities and Sciences
Subject	Public Policy Program
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/rc071fd9245
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/rc071fd9245

Use and reproduction: User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).

Preferred citation: Doty, Leila. (2022). The Ads that Slip Through the Cracks: Undisclosed Political Ads on Facebook. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/rc071fd9245

Stanford University, Public Policy Program, Masters Theses and Practicum Projects

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