How Political Candidates Target Social Media Audiences

My last blog post was on how 2024 election followers should be significantly warned about disinformation in political campaign advertisements as social media users increase and Artificial intelligence technology advances, making fake videos and propaganda seem authentic. While researching how political disinformation spreads, I wanted to figure out rhetorical strategies political ads use to appeal to the audience on social media platforms. 

For example, this article by the Pew Research Center states that one of the strategies used by political ads on social media is “microtargeting - a strategy used to reach a specific group of users based on their geographical location or personal interests.” Furthermore, an article by Casley Tolan from CNN states, “candidates in some of the highest-profile midterm races are using Facebook and Instagram ad targeting to aim messages at voters based on their music tastes, sports fandoms, shopping destinations and television habits…” In Tolan’s article, he even goes over a service that Meta has launched called Detailed Targeting, which “allows political campaigns and other advertisers to show their ads to people who share specific interests, or make sure people interested in certain topics aren’t shown their ads.” 

There are two problems this causes social media users. First, data privacy does not exist, as “People’s data is being used without their consent to put them into a box and try to manipulate them into not just buying something but voting for a particular person…” (Tolan). In addition, these targeting practices can put social media users in an “echo chamber” where they only receive information based on their interests and maintain only one perspective.

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