Thread by @anotheracronym

#ICYMI - Twitter finally announced it’s political ad policy, Google took away campaigns’ ability to reach voters, + Facebook is considering major changes as well. 🗑️🔥 Here's a look at what went down with the different platforms in #FWIW:
anotheracronym.org/newsletter/fwi…

@realDonaldTrump's 2020 campaign has spent over $28 million on Facebook + Google ads since the midterms. His spend increased significantly last week, ramping up with fundraising + email acquisition ads advocating for @RepAdamSchiff to resign.

What is this “Bull-schiff” swag?

@PeteButtigieg is polling high in Iowa + New Hampshire. But was hammered for using an African stock 📸 and an old IG post at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial.

@ewarren continued running dozens of ads for her… plans. 📚 Her team has been pretty consistent with $$$ behind every plan:

#FWIW, here’s the cumulative digital spending overtime of the leading candidates for the Democratic nomination:

The social media self-regulation dumpster fire 🗑️🔥

Google announced a limit ad on targeting for political organizations + campaigns, which means groups can no longer upload lists of voters or target on any criteria other than age, gender, zip code, and “contextual targeting.”

Campaigns + organizations will be spending much less efficiently on sites like YouTube + Google’s other properties, reaching unintended audiences with ads less relevant to their interests. Google will make a lot more 💵, as we’ll have to ⬆️ spend to reach our target audiences.

What’s also 🤬 nuts about Google’s change is that it’s clearly a PR move unrelated to the actual problem of misinformation on their platform - they’ll still allow the Trump campaign to outright lie in their advertising. 🙄
qz.com/1739780/trumps…

Simply put...We’re NOT encouraging platforms to maintain the status quo. There IS something that can + should be done immediately.

Platforms should follow @Snapchat and commit to fact-checking all paid political ads that move through their platforms.
cnbc.com/2019/11/18/sna…

Social media companies have a responsibility to remove hate-speech and curb misinformation from spreading on their platforms, and that’s where our policy advocacy should focus on. 🙏🏻

Speaking of social media - we dropped a special episode of the #FWIWPod today - featuring ACRONYM’s own Tatenda Musapatike (@TatendaCheryl) + James Barnes (@jimmyeatcarbs) - both Facebook staffers in 2016 with valuable insights on the platform.
for-what-its-worth.simplecast.com/episodes/insid…

That’s it for #FWIW. View our past issues + sign up for next week’s here ⬇️
anotheracronym.org/fwiw/