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DL 220

Microtargeting

Published: November 2, 2019 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to Digitally Literate, issue 220. Your go-to source for insightful content on education, technology, and the digital landscape.

🔖 Key Takeaways

Hi all, welcome to issue 220 of Digitally Literate. My name is Ian O'Byrne.

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📺 Watch

A California man is challenging Facebook to remove his lying political ads. If you saw the Facebook Libra hearing, you know that AOC asked if she could run a Facebook ad claiming Republicans supported the Green New Deal.

After the Zuckerberg hearing her question is being put to the test. This new Facebook political ad claims Lindsey Graham supports the Green New Deal.

Facebook removed the ad from the social network, indicating that it came from a political action committee. Adriel Hampton then declared that he was running for Governor of California, to run the false ad again and test Facebook's policies.

The test exposes the arbitrary nature of Facebook's political ad policies—remove lies from PACs but not from candidates. Hampton's creative protest reveals the policy serves no coherent principle.

📚 Read

Twitter made news this week when it announced that it was banning all ads about political candidates, elections, and hot-button policy issues in the upcoming 2020 elections in the U.S.

After this announcement, the focus went to other digital, social companies to see if they would follow suit. Facebook indicated that they would not block ads, citing his earlier stance on free expression.

Ellen Weintraub, Chair of the U.S. Federal Elections Commission (FEC) indicates in this piece that the focus should not be on wholesale banning of political ads, but ending the process of microtargeting in the sales of these ads.

The distinction matters: political advertising isn't inherently problematic, but the ability to show different messages to different people—hiding what you're really saying from public scrutiny—enables manipulation at scale.

Microtargeting is also a problem as this information is used to digitally redline individuals and groups. Read more about issues of access and privacy in this post from Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik.

Facebook is one of the internet's main streets. Together with parameters set out by marketers, its targeting tools and algorithms determine which job and financial ads millions of people see. Earlier this year, the social network settled lawsuits with civil rights advocates alleging ad discrimination, and it has been overhauling a system called Lookalike Audiences as it applies to job, housing, and credit advertising. Yesterday, Facebook was hit with a class action lawsuit alleging age and gender discrimination in the financial ads it serves.

The algorithmic version of redlining operates invisibly. You don't know the opportunities you're not seeing.

Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook

Research from Andrew Guess, Jonathan Nagler, & Joshua Tucker looking at the prevalence and effects of misinformation in political campaigns.

Findings suggest that sharing content labeled as misinformation was a relatively rare activity. Much of this sharing behavior is linked to political ideology and age.

This doesn't mean misinformation doesn't matter—but it does suggest the apocalyptic framing may be overblown. The people sharing false content aren't the majority; they're a specific demographic that could be targeted for intervention.

Google Needs Fitbit for Its Own Bigger Ambitions

Google purchased Fitbit this week for $2.1 billion. This move drastically expands the reach of the ad giant as they strive to connect with you everywhere.

The key thing to understand about Google (and their parent company Alphabet) is that they're all in on ambient computing. This means that Google's services should be everywhere, and always available to help you. The idea that you should have to go to a computer…or even your mobile device to access their services seems antiquated to the company. They dream of a world where you can just call out and a device nearby will respond. Having a device on your wrist is one step closer to this goal.

Of course…there are also serious questions about the data from your Fitbit devices and where, or how this is used. Your heart rate, sleep patterns, and activity levels become another data stream for the advertising machine.

As I write this week's newsletter, the 16th Annual Open Education Conference is wrapping up in Phoenix, Arizona. Open education refers to the resources, tools, and practices that are free of the legal, financial and technical barriers and can be used, shared and adapted in digital spaces.

A lot of news has been rippling out from the community as David Wiley announced that the conference would be adjourned indefinitely.

In the link for the lead story in this section, Michael Feldstein suggests that this is a very significant announcement, and that this is a sign that the OpenEd coalition has fallen apart.

This will be an important story to watch over the coming year(s). To make your voice heard, or learn from others…Nicole Allen sent out a form to collect input from the field. Responses are available here.

🔨 Do

This is the elementary school (Grades k - 5) part of the Make it Real competition from Autodesk. The elementary challenge is titled "Make for Everyone." The middle grades challenge is "Make it Green." The high school challenge is "Make Justice."

To enter the competition (and possibly win a makerspace) you need to be from a New England School. But, the pedagogical materials and resources are an incredible opportunity to bring this learning into your classroom.

🤔 Consider

A simple click can cause a great harm.

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Yeboah's warning resonates through this issue—microtargeted political lies, discriminatory financial ads served invisibly, health data flowing to advertising companies. Each click seems small; the aggregated harm is systemic. The 2020 election approaches with these tools sharper than ever.

This week, I really enjoyed listening to the start of a new podcast series from the good folks at the Lawfare Blog. The new series is called Arbiters of Truth, and it focuses on misinformation and disinformation in the runup to the 2020 elections in the U.S.

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