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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Reform straight out with Facebook ads claiming "Confirmed: Burnham will cut your pension". (Per his speech earlier, this doesn't seem to be at all true).

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 23h

Reform straight out with Facebook ads claiming "Confirmed: Burnham will cut your pension". (Per his speech earlier, this doesn't seem to be at all true).

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 29/09/2026

A quite culture-wars-y ad from the Tories, arguing that "liking a pint doesn't make you far right". Hard to imagine the Labour MP in question disagreeing, so maybe she'll sign the "petition" too?

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 28/09/2026

Now the same tactic from the Conservatives. "Labour is now the welfare party" says the message. Targeting Liverpool.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 27/09/2026

Reform are throwing a lot of ads at Liverpool this week. Targeting cabinet members on their portfolio (or in Miliband's case, his previous one too).

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 27/09/2026

This chart is UK Meta and Google political spend over the last week. Greens going big for Holborn & St Pancras by-election. Interestingly, Reform (~half their spend) and Restore (~ all of it) are going pretty hard at it too, given they've no chance of success. R+R = roughly equal to Labour.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 26/09/2026

Last week we were talking about Reform's high ad spending, but look at that Green line go vertical thanks to their attempt to try and win Holborn and St Pancras for Zack Polanski. Full ad spend report for all UK advertisers, as always, here: trends.whotargets.me/reports/7e7c...

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 25/09/2026

This piece by @geoffmulgan.bsky.social on "collective stupidity" (mostly caused by exposure to the internet) is definitely worth a read. www.arguably.uk/p/collective...

arguably.uk

Collective stupidity is a security threat

Why it’s time for societies to take cognitive rearmament seriously

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 25/09/2026

Some data from us on Reform's increased ad spending in Private Eye this week.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 22/09/2026

And, first published last year, here's a wider set of proposals that would help shore up trust in online political campaigning and the wider political information ecosystem. whotargets.me/en/restoring...

whotargets.me

Restoring the Integrity of UK Election Campaigns – Who Targets Me

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 22/09/2026

With the UK government apparently looking at political spending caps, it's worth considering whether, with campaign ad spending accelerating cycle-after-cycle, limiting the amount parties and candidates can buy could help end the arms race: whotargets.me/en/better-re...

whotargets.me

Better regulation for digital political advertising in the UK – Who Targets Me

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 22/09/2026

whotargets.me

Better regulation for digital political advertising in the UK – Who Targets Me

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 21/09/2026

New Labour digital ad targeting Holborn and St. Pancras. "Farage has crypto billionaires, Labour has you."

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 20/09/2026

New Rupert Lowe ad claims Restore supporters were "attacked" by "thugs" in Holborn yesterday. They won't get far in the seat, but aren't going to pass up the opportunity to provoke and record the reaction to them being there.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 19/09/2026

"Reform will be the toughest party on crime the country has ever seen" say their digital ads in Holborn and St Pancras. Surprised they're spending there, albeit at a low level. Money to burn.

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 16/09/2026

Reform's spend on "Ban the balaclava" ads: £200. Reform's spend on "Ban the Burqa" ads: £2,000. 🤔

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 16/09/2026

Some varied endorsements for Zack Goldsmith in the latest Green Party ad in Holborn. First is from Andrew Feinstein (who some on the left hoped would beat Keir Starmer in 2024). Second is from Rami, who has "been cutting Zack's hair for years".

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

American Midterms Dispatch Issue #1: Data centres, donations and discontent in the American heartland. fulldisclosure.whotargets.me/p/the-americ...

fulldisclosure.whotargets.me

The American Dispatch: Issue #1

Data centres, donations and discontent in the American heartland

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

More new ads from Reform, these on personal tax allowances, and their first mentioning the idea of "The Uniparty" (a term they clearly think they've familiarised enough that it can go into ads without explanation).

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

Long-ish read about growth-hacking YouTube's systems and algorithms with hundreds of channels spewing near-identical content read by paid actors. Worth a look if you care about "What actually *is* political advertising in 2026?" www.semafor.com/article/09/0...

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

At least as interesting as Reform's national ad spending is an ad like this, postcode targeted at a council by-election campaign in Milton Keynes next week. It shows their capacity to campaign at multiple levels simultaneously. The seat was Labour-held, but only by a couple of hundred votes.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

Data from New Zealand ahead of their general election next month. Can you spot when the regulated election period started?

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15/09/2026

Labour has three new YouTube ads for the forthcoming Holborn by-election. Candidate bio/why I'm standing messages from Camden Council leader Sagal Abdi-Wali. Around £1,000 spent on them so far for ~100k views. adstransparency.google.com/advertiser/A...

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 14/09/2026

New Reform ad campaign, calling on Labour to rule out tax rises at the Budget next month. Seems likely there will be lots of these to come, petition after petition, building an ever bigger email list of potential supporters.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 14/09/2026

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 13/09/2026

A Tale Of Two Ad Spends* * Data for Sept 10th

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 11/09/2026

This chart does a decent job of showing how Reform has dominated online political advertising in the UK in recent weeks. 75% of all spending, 5x anyone else. One way or another, the story is all about their money.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 11/09/2026

Wondering what this chart looks like for the next couple of years given this. www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 11/09/2026

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 11/09/2026

A piece on the challenge for politicians of "resurfaced" clips. (Aka it's harder and harder for anyone in politics to ever change their position on anything, because a 10 year old video clip will end up being used against you). www.semafor.com/article/09/0...

semafor.com

View: Candidates contend with the rise of ‘resurfaced’ old clips

Candidates who think they’ve escaped or explained their pasts keep having to explain comments that “resurface” online.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 10/09/2026

Definitely worth checking out this project on LLMs and election-related queries. Another useful thing to know in future would be the questions people really ask and how often they're used - maybe there's a data donation project there for someone?

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

New piece: The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU's political advertising regulation. whotargets.me/en/the-afd-a...

whotargets.me

The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation – Who Targets Me

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation “The regulation shifted the balance of online campaigning in favour of the AfD and other European far-right parties” 💡 analysis by @worklesshard.bsky.social @whotargets.me whotargets.me/en/the-afd-a...

whotargets.me

The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation – Who Targets Me

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

The Green Party has already spent at least £13k on list-building Meta ads targeting the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. Labour, just ~£3.5k so far.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

If you really want to know what happens on social media platforms and the effects of those things, you really need solid data access for researchers and civil society. This report explains how to do it. Governments take note. www.sdruk.ukri.org/2026/09/09/s...

sdruk.ukri.org

Taskforce publishes final report on improving access to social media data for research

Taskforce publishes final report on improving access to social media data for research into online harms

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

Amnesty finds Meta accepted ads in Brazil containing election-related disinformation. This format of research is an oldie but a goodie. It really should be surprising that platforms get caught out with it nearly every time... but it's not. www.amnesty.org/en/latest/ne...

amnesty.org

Amnesty Report: Meta failed to block election related-related disinformation ads on Facebook

An Amnesty International experiment has exposed Meta's failure to detect election-related disinformation ads on Facebook in Brazil.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

Excellent, useful report on "Monetised Slopaganda" from @reset.tech. (Scroll to Appendix A for the list of hundreds of politicians and celebrities around the world who have been impersonated for financial gain.) www.reset.tech/resources/mo...

reset.tech

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

New piece: The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU's political advertising regulation. whotargets.me/en/the-afd-a...

whotargets.me

The AfD are the biggest winners of the EU’s political ad regulation – Who Targets Me

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 09/09/2026

Until recently, Reform ads featured Nigel Farage and no-one else, but they've suddenly started to broaden out their list of characters.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 07/09/2026

Restore spent £1k on a Facebook ad for the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election. Basically a cash donation to Meta.

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 31/08/2026

Throughout the summer, Reform has spent around £10,000 a day on Meta ads. In that period, two-thirds of all digital political ads in the UK have come from Nigel Farage's party, focused on either immigration or the claim that "Burnham has no mandate".

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

Claire E. Robertson, PhD @crobertson500.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Is social media truly making us more politically polarized, or does it simply over-represent our most extreme opinions? In our new preprint, @small-schulz.bsky.social and I present *punishing evidence* that social media systematically overrepresents users’ most extreme political opinions. 1/n

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 24/08/2026

We absolutely need rules around getting paid to post political content. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

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Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 16/08/2026

Despite slipping in the polls, Reform have spent around £50k in the last month on digital ads calling for a General Election "now". They're petitions gathering email addresses, and must be seeing traction among supporters (or they'd not be spending so much). www.facebook.com/ads/library/...

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