Free and fair elections could be a thing of the past in Australia - thanks to Facebook and Google.

This year’s federal election we saw ads trying to influence your vote all over the internet. An alarming number were untraceable to people or parties. No one knows how much was spent and who exactly those ads targeted.

Tech companies are rapidly changing the face of political advertising. Their platforms let you run an ad costing as little as a few cents per click. BUT these ads don’t have to follow the same rules as traditional advertising like TV.

Without these rules, hidden groups can influence elections from the shadows. Like they did in the US in the 2016 election. Like what happened with Brexit.

Facebook and Google are cashing in from advertising but they’re not being transparent with us about the ads they’re running. And it’s influencing the future of our country.

During this election in Australia, more money was poured into online ads than ever before. Almost 70% of digital ad revenue went straight into Google and Facebook’s pockets.

We now spend more time on the internet than any other media. But without proper transparency measures we risk being misled by hidden actors who want to sway our elections.

Across the world, the tech giants were dragged kicking and screaming to improve transparency. While many argue these measures don’t go far enough, one thing’s for sure: they have the power to fix their platforms.

They just haven’t done it for Australia.

This would be a start:

• Require Facebook pages to be certified before they can run political ads, as they are in the US
• Enforce the inclusion of authorisation details, just like TV networks do
• Introduce an open and searchable database of ads that reveals who is being targeted
• Allow researchers to trace links to help identify patterns in how fake news is being spread

Facebook and Google may be powerful but they are still vulnerable to public pressure. After years of campaigning from SumOfUs members like you and our allies, Facebook announced in March that it will ban white nationalist and white separatist content from the site.

Outrage over the influence of fake news over Brexit and the US presidential elections forced the tech giants to start introducing transparency measures. But most of these aren’t available in Australia and many don’t go far enough. It’s time they did.

The integrity of our democracy is not a given. It must be protected and that can only happen when people like you demand it.

Tell Facebook and Google to make political advertising on their platforms more transparent!

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