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In this paper, we examine how online political micro-targeting is regulated in Europe. While there are no specific rules on such micro-targeting, there are general rules that apply. We focus on three fields of law: data protection law, freedom of expression, and sector-specific rules for political advertising; for the latter we examine four countries. We argue that the rules in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are necessary, but not sufficient. We show that political advertising, including online political micro-targeting, is protected by the right to freedom of expression. That right is not absolute, however. From a European human rights perspective, it is possible for lawmakers to limit the possibilities for political advertising. Indeed, some countries ban TV advertising for political parties during elections.

The revitalisation of canvassing in recent elections is strongly related to campaigns´ growing possibilities for analysing voter data to gain knowledge about their constituents, identifying their most likely voters and serving up personalised messages through individual conversations. The research literature about political micro-targeting hardly ever focusses on campaigns in parliamentary democracies with strict data protection laws. Based on in-depth expert interviews we introduce a framework of constraints in strategic political communication and reveal several restrictions on the macro, meso and micro levels which hinder the implementation of sophisticated data strategies in Germany. We argue that political micro-targeting highly depends on system-level contextual factors, budgetary and legal restraints, party structures and even individual decisions and knowledge on behalf of the campaign leadership.

The proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2021 "Democracy in Flux: Order, Dynamics and Voices in Digital Public Spheres" have been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) (grant no.: 16DII121, 16DII122, 16DII123, 16DII124, 16DII125, 16DII126, 16DII127,16DII128 – "Deutsches Internet-Institut").

Political micro-targeting (PMT) has become a popular topic both in academia and in the public discussions after the surprise results of the 2016 US presidential election, the UK vote on leaving the European Union, and a number of general elections in Europe in 2017. Yet, we still know little about whether PMT is a tool with such destructive potential that it requires close societal control, or if it's "just" a new phenomenon with currently unknown capacities, but which can ultimately be incorporated into our political processes. In this article we identify the points where we think we need to further develop our analytical capacities around PMT. We argue that we need to decouple research from the US context, and through more non-US and comparative research we need to develop a better understanding of the macro, meso, and micro level factors that affect the adoption and success of PMTs across different countries. One of the most under-researched macro-level factors is law. We argue that PMT research must develop a better understanding of law, especially in Europe, where the regulatory frameworks around platforms, personal data, political and commercial speech do shape the use and effectiveness of PMT. We point out that the incorporation of such new factors calls for the sophistication of research designs, which currently rely too much on qualitative methods, and use too little of the data that exists on PMT. And finally, we call for distancing PMT research from the hype surrounding the new PMT capabilities, and the moral panics that quickly develop around its uses.

Personalised interaction between political parties and the electorate has existed since the emergence of modern elections. Nowadays, digital technology has moved the relationship between political candidates and voters to a more advanced level. Through collecting and analysing citizens' personal data via digital means, politicians have the capacity to foresee the electorate's political behaviour, its preferences, and the choices it is inclined to make. Such campaign strategy is known as 'political micro-targeting', and it has raised great interest in academia. One may consider it a panacea for political misinformation, given that political micro-targeting can increase the population's participation in politics. Nonetheless, it can be argued that this phenomenon poses a long-term threat to democracy. Accordingly, due to the high engagement with personal data that political micro-targeting entails, the question of its compatibility with citizens' voting rights arises. This thesis will explore the issue of online political micro-targeting and seek to conduct a comparative analysis between presidential election campaigns in three European states, namely France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Accordingly, current political micro-targeting practices in these legal systems, and how they can influence each other, will be illustrated. An important place will be devoted to the analysis of political micro-targeting's interference with the electorate's voting rights and its regulatory framework.

Background: There is a vigorous international debate on the effects of political micro-targeting on campaigning practices and on the integrity of democracy. It arguably encourages a more fragmented and transactional politics where localised claims and promises remain unchallenged. Analysis: If political micro-targeting requires a precisely segmented audience, a specific location and, most importantly a focussed policy message, then how much political micro-targeting actually occurs in Canadian elections? We analysed a sample of ads (from Facebook's public archive) on two critical dates during the 2019 federal elections. Conclusions and Implications: Only a small minority of ads (7%) met these criteria; most critically lacked precision on one, or two, of these variables. Our findings suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of the practice, and greater transparency. Contexte: Il y a un débat international vigoureux sur les effets du micro-ciblage politique sur les pratiques de campagne et sur l'intégrité de la démocratie. Il sert sans doute à une politique fragmentée et transactionnelle où les revendications et les promesses localisées restent incontestées. Analyse: Si le micro-ciblage politique nécessite un auditoire segmenté avec précision, un lieu spécifique et surtout, un message stratégique ciblé, combien de micro-ciblage politique y a-t-il réellement lors des élections canadiennes? Nous avons analysé un échantillon d'annonces (provenant des archives publiques de Facebook) à deux dates critiques lors des élections fédérales de 2019. Conclusions et implications: Seule une petite minorité des annonces (7%) répondait à ces critères: la plupart des publicités manquait de précision sur une ou deux de ces variables. Nos résultats suggèrent un recours à une compréhension plus nuancée de la pratique, et une plus grande transparence. Mots-clés: La vie privée, communication politique, médias sociaux, analyse de contenu.

Personalised interaction between political parties and the electorate has existed since the emergence of modern elections. Nowadays, digital technology has moved the relationship between political candidates and voters to a more advanced level. Through collecting and analysing citizens' personal data via digital means, politicians have the capacity to foresee the electorate's political behaviour, its preferences, and the choices it is inclined to make. Such campaign strategy is known as 'political micro-targeting', and it has raised great interest in academia. One may consider it a panacea for political misinformation, given that political micro-targeting can increase the population's participation in politics. Nonetheless, it can be argued that this phenomenon poses a long-term threat to democracy. Accordingly, due to the high engagement with personal data that political micro-targeting entails, the question of its compatibility with citizens' voting rights arises. This thesis will explore the issue of online political micro-targeting and seek to conduct a comparative analysis between presidential election campaigns in three European states, namely France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Accordingly, current political micro-targeting practices in these legal systems, and how they can influence each other, will be illustrated. An important place will be devoted to the analysis of political micro-targeting's interference with the electorate's voting rights and its regulatory framework.

The practice of political micro-targeting (PMT) – tailoring messages for voters based on their personal data – has increased over the past two decades, particularly in the U.S. Studies of PMT have to date concentrated largely on its effects on voters, or its implications for democracy more broadly. Less attention has been given to answering basic descriptive questions about how people perceive, feel and care about this new mode of political communication. This paper fills that gap by reporting findings from an online survey (weighted to be nationally representative on age, gender, ethnicity, region and past vote) that measured public attitudes toward PMT during the 2020 U.S. Presidential campaign. Specifically, we measure voter orientations toward PMT in four key dimensions – awareness, aversion, knowledge, and acceptability at the aggregate level – and explore how these vary according to a range of individual characteristics. Key findings are that public understanding and acceptance of PMT may be higher than current studies indicate, particularly among certain sectors of the population. Such insights are important for academic research to cognize and also policy-makers, as they move toward greater regulation of voter targeting.

This article argues that political micro-targeting impacts the fundamental right of thenon-targeted citizens to receive information, and consequently, the democratic public discourse. The right to information is the passive side of freedom of expression, among other protected by Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Freedom of political expression is also an instrument to create a diverse and free public debate; therefore, expressions that counteract this goal cannot avail of the protection.

The use of data to inform and run political campaigning has become an inescapable trend in recent years. In attempting to persuade an electorate, micro-targeted campaigns (MTCs) have been employed to great effect through the use of tailored messaging and selective targeting. Here we investigate the capacity of MTCs to deal with the diversity of political preferences across an electorate. More precisely, via an Agent-Based Model we simulate various diverse electorates that encompass single issue, multiple issue, swing, and disengaged voters (among others, including combinations thereof) and determine the relative persuasive efficacy of MTCs when pitted against more traditional, population-targeting campaigns. Taking into account the perceived credibility of these campaigns, we find MTCs highly capable of handling greater voter complexity than shown in previous work, and yielding further advantages beyond traditional campaigns in their capacity to avoid inefficient (or even backfiring) interactions – even when fielding a low credibility candidate.

A recent policy development has been voluntary self-regulation of internet platforms through the establishment of online ad archives. Since 2018, concern over the potential misuse of platforms has led to calls for reform of online campaign monitoring. In response, Google, Facebook and Twitter made available repositories of political advertisements appearing on their respective platforms. The intended promise was to make the process of political advertising less of a 'black box' and render voter targeting more transparent to public review. In this paper, we consider whether the Facebook Ad Library actually improves the capability of regulators and the public to oversee online campaigns. Specifically, we analyse a corpus of ads focusing on Brexit in the lead-up to the European Parliamentary Elections in 2019, to determine whether these data are meaningful compared to reporting of offline campaign activity already required under UK Electoral Commission rules. We examine some 234 individual ad campaigns run during a 14-day period leading up to the election using data collection tools available via the Ad Library interface. A content analysis of individual ads combined with data obtained from the archive about the ad sponsor and demographic reach suggests at a coarse level of detail that micro-targeting has taken place. However, limitations of the Ad Library prevent its effectiveness as an oversight mechanism, as reporting obscures details about overall spend, reach and targeting behaviour, key issues for online political advertising. Based on these findings and the methodological challenge of interrogating the Facebook Ad Library, we reflect on the policy effectiveness of supposedly transparent ad archives as a policy tool.