Abstract
Online political microtargeting involves monitoring people’s online behaviour, and using the collected data, sometimes enriched with other data, to show people-targeted political advertisements. Online political microtargeting is widely used in the US; Europe may not be far behind. This paper maps microtargeting’s promises and threats to democracy. For example, microtargeting promises to optimise the match between the electorate’s concerns and political campaigns, and to boost campaign engagement and political participation. But online microtargeting could also threaten democracy. For instance, a political party could, misleadingly, present itself as a different one-issue party to different individuals. And data collection for microtargeting raises privacy concerns. We sketch possibilities for policymakers if they seek to regulate online political microtargeting. We discuss which measures would be possible, while complying with the right to freedom of expression under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Highlights
Political campaigns are increasingly combining data-driven voter research with personalised political advertising: online political microtargeting.[1]
This paper focuses on the following questions: what is online political microtargeting, and what are its promises and threats? This paper combines insights from both a legal and social science perspective
We focus on online political microtargeting, a category of political microtargeting
Summary
Political campaigns are increasingly combining data-driven voter research with personalised political advertising: online political microtargeting.[1]. Modern online marketing techniques promise to make microtargeting even more tailored to individual voters, and more effective. These techniques are primarily used in the United States, but have recently gained popularity in European countries too. Politicians apply microtargeting because they expect that targeting makes ads more effective. Such ads can address issues which are important to an individual, adapting the format and language to meet the individual needs and interests for maximum effect. This paper focuses on the following questions: what is online political microtargeting, and what are its promises and threats?
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