Donald Trump is the biggest spender on political ads on Facebook, research says

Donald Trump spends the most money on political ads on Facebook
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Alexandra Richards18 July 2018

Donald Trump's administration spends the more money on political adverts on Facebook than any other organisation, according to research.

The US president and his political action committee spent £210,085 ($274,000) on ads on the social networking site since the beginning of May.

His ads have also been seen by the most Facebook users, with more than 37 million people viewing them since they went live.

That is 13 million more than the second most viewed group of political ads for reproductive rights organisation Planned Parenthood which is also the second biggest spender.

US President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Prestwick Airport during his UK stay
PA

Research carried out by the New York University used Facebook data from an archive of political ads dating back to May 2018.

According to the New York Times, the archive was created by Facebook as a publicly searchable database that catalogues the ads on its site and identifies which groups or individuals paid for them.

The archive only includes ads which Facebook believes are aimed at Americans.

According to researchers, Facebook’s political ad archive represents the first instance of a major online advertisement platform making political ads purchased by advertisers searchable.

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Since it emerged that Russia interfered with political ads in the US presidential election in 2016, Facebook required buyers to be verified as US citizens.

Therefore the archive only reflects domestically targeted ads.

Researchers broke down the top 449 spenders of political ads on Facebook.

It found that 210 of the spenders were left-wing groups, 124 were right-wing groups and 115 groups were politically neutral, they said.

They also found that the majority of ads targeted men and women between the ages of 25 to 34 while those under the age of 17 or above 65 were least targeted.

Trump supporter attends rally during 2016 general election
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Facebook told the New York Times it welcomed the study, saying: “This report is the exactly how we hoped the tool would be used — outside experts helping to analyse these ads on Facebook,” said Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management.

“It brings more transparency to the messages people see and increases accountability and responsibility over time, not just for us but advertisers as well.”

The Trump administration has previously admitted to using targeted ads during the 2016 general election.

The Standard has contacted the Trump administration for comment.