Propaganda Política Pagada: Exploring U.S. Political Facebook Ads en Español

What is it about?

We study Spanish and English-language political ads on Facebook during the 2020 U.S. elections and fit that there is disproportionately low spend on Spanish-language advertising. Furthermore, the estimated top Spanish-language advertisers were government and civic organizations, largely spending on public education campaigns around the U.S. Census and public health. Traditional political candidates do seem to do much advertising on Spanish-language ads.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

During the 2020 U.S. elections, public concern grew about misleading political ads and other types of digital misinformation targeted at Spanish-speaking audiences, from false claims that then-candidate President Joe Biden is a socialist to assertions antifa was behind the January 6 Capitol attacks. However, most of these examples are anecdotal, and not much is known about the extent of Spanish-language political advertising on digital platforms and what vulnerabilities might exacerbate the potential for the flow of misinformation. We need a better understanding of this content to better determine effective systemic interventions against Spanish-language misinformation online. As a first step toward understanding misinformation aimed at Spanish-speakers, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of all Spanish-language 2020 political advertising across Meta properties–primarily Facebook and Instagram.