While the sample group of adverts is still too small to make any meaningful conclusion so far on how different demographics are being targeted, the Who Targets Me set of social media advert data is the largest collected so far.
In the US, the New York Times attempted a similar project to collect data behind Facebook ad targeting during the US election but did not have as many volunteers taking part as those so far recruited in the UK.
Jeremy Merrill, a journalist from the New York Times who ran the newspaper’s project said: “I'm excited to see more and more attention paid to how political campaigns target ads to voters.
“It's now possible for a political campaign to send one message to one set of voters without another set of voters even knowing that message exists. While it's important to keep in mind that ad targeting isn't new, there's an opportunity for it to be much more granular on the web.”
To get a fuller picture of what the political parties are telling people online, Who Targets Me needs more people to sign up. It wants volunteers of all ages and genders from all political backgrounds and affiliations, in order to get the most representative sample possible.
Sign up to be a Who Targets Me volunteer here
Its current volunteers stretch across most of the UK (594 out of 650 constituencies) but in some cases there is just one person per constituency or none at all. The vast majority (81%) are men and the average age is 37 years old.
“We're in a new era for political campaigns - one where the message a party has for you can be personally tailored to your likes and preferences,” said Jeffers. “If we, as voters, don't take a moment to think about how campaigns are being run, we'll end up having more and more advanced techniques used on a narrower and narrower slice of the voting public.”
The Bureau Local will work with local journalists across the UK to help them gather data about online ads in the area and cross reference this with traditional published material.
We are a new journalism and technology team at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism which is building a network of collaborators to dig into different types of datasets and tell the stories that matter to local communities. If you want to become part of the Bureau Local network sign up here.