• Microtargeted social media ads can suppress voter turnout in vulnerable groups. • Study tracked 10,000 US voters, capturing all ads viewed before 2016 election. • Researchers quantified impact: targeted ads reduced turnout by a significant margin. • Effect strongest in communities with high political engagement and media consumption. • Findings highlight need for stricter regulation of political advertising on social platforms. • First study to measure microtargeting’s influence on actual voting behavior.
Article Summaries:
- A new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that micro‑targeted political ads on social media can reduce voter turnout among specific, vulnerable groups. Researchers recruited a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 U.S. voters, who installed an app that logged every advertisement they saw during the six weeks before the 2016 election. Analysis of the data revealed that ads designed to discourage voting were delivered with high precision to key demographic segments, and the study quantifies the resulting decline in turnout, estimating that millions of potential voters were effectively suppressed.
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