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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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Obviously there's a version of this that says "depending on circumstances, pensions may increase by less in future, which is a kind of cut", but the way of saying that is to say that, whereas this is designed to misinform.

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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 · 28/09/2026

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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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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Reposted by Who Targets Me

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...

Restoring the Integrity of UK Election Campaigns – Who Targets Me

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Reposted by Who Targets Me

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...

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

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Restoring the Integrity of UK Election Campaigns – Who Targets Me

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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

The pipeline of "campaigning" > "content creation" > "targeted ads with specific audiences" is something we'll see a lot more of over the coming years. It's been common for organic content, but relatively rare for paid.

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

The ad is only targeted at the constituency, so Lowe's high reach organic posts on Facebook are doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of pushing this narrative.

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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

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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fulldisclosure.whotargets.me

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

The American Dispatch: Issue #1

Data centres, donations and discontent in the American heartland

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These are the targeted Facebook ads?

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They're still spending ~£7,500 a day on Meta, just because they can. All other parties spending a few hundred at most...

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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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We&rsquo;re committed to supporting democratic processes around the world

There's some evidence of Google trying to squash this effort in the piece, but generally the company's efforts to protect elections and democratic processes are a teeny weeny fig leaf. They could do so much more. publicpolicy.google/elections/

publicpolicy.google

For over two decades, Google and YouTube have committed to providing timely and authoritative information to help voters understand, navigate, and participate in democratic processes.

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

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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

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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It's since the local elections. Labour dominated the year to May, but since, Reform outspending them 2:1.

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Significantly higher spending started 5-6 weeks ago...

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

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Or "what happens when one party has a metric megaton of cash in the middle of the political cycle"

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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Rupert Lowe is also having his say (despite Restore having a 0.00% chance of winning the seat).

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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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