Title: How “Dark Advertising” Could Impact the Future of Australian Elections

As the prevalence of AI-driven “covert ads” grows, Australians are being thrust into an uncertain data sphere in the lead up to their federal election. This type of advertising, personalized and often elusive to public examination, is already a reality. Its implications, coupled with Australia’s lack of truth-in-advertising laws and tech giants’ retreat from fact-checking, expose voters to potential misinformation campaigns that could potentially undermine democracy.

Addressing this misinformation crisis calls for legislative measures, international cooperation, and continuous demand for transparency from these platforms. The missteps of American tech platforms during their own elections should serve as a stark reminder to Australia that the industry cannot be left to self-regulate.

Political ads have a significant role in shaping election outcomes, despite the increasing cloud of uncertainty and misinformation surrounding them. As we approach the 2025 federal election, deceptive advertising and digital content are already on the rise. This is not unexpected, considering the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) only monitors the official campaign period, allowing false claims to spread freely before the official campaign begins.

The heart of this issue lies in the evolution of digital political advertising. Modern campaigns heavily depend on social media platforms, using associative advertising models to tap into beliefs or interests and deliver digital ads. Unlike traditional media where ads are visible to everyone and subject to regulatory and market scrutiny, digital ads are often fleeting and hidden from the public. Recent advancements in AI technology have made it easier and cheaper to produce large volumes of false and misleading political ads, making detection increasingly challenging.

This “covert advertising” leads to information asymmetry, where certain groups can control and shape information delivery, exposing voters to tailored messages that can skew reality.

The potential for misleading or false information to influence certain groups is also higher with online ad targeting. For example, the conservative lobby group, Advance Australia, has recently followed this strategy by spreading outdated news articles on Facebook, a tactic known as malinformation.

Transparency tools provided by Meta, which includes Facebook and Instagram, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, are inadequate for meaningful scrutiny. They reveal little about the algorithms that determine ad delivery or the audiences being targeted.

Recent US findings underscore the risks of political advertising in the digital age. Investigations showed that deceptive political ads thrived on platforms like Facebook and Instagram during the 2024 U.S. elections, with ads often using AI-generated content to mislead users and gather personal information.

However, it’s vital to acknowledge that Australia’s political and regulatory landscape is unique. The differences in media consumption, political structure, culture, and regulatory frameworks mean that Australia may not necessarily follow the same course as the United States.

While the AEC enforces specific rules on political advertising during official campaign periods, oversight outside these periods is weak, allowing misleading content to circulate unchecked. The failure to pass truth-in-political-advertising laws only exacerbates this issue. Tech companies like Meta and Alphabet have also retreated from initiatives to combat misinformation and deceptive advertising, raising serious concerns about the effectiveness of platform self-regulation.

Given these developments, expecting platforms to autonomously monitor content effectively, especially in a jurisdiction like Australia, is unrealistic.

Independent computational tools have emerged to tackle these issues. They include browser plugins and mobile apps that allow users to donate their ad data. For example, the ADM+S Australian Ad Observatory project collected hundreds of thousands of ads during the 2022 election, uncovering undisclosed political ads.

Regulatory solutions like the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) offer another potential path forward, requiring access to political advertising data for researchers and policymakers. However, Australia is lagging in adopting similar measures.

Without implementing these solutions, platforms are free to prioritize sensational, controversial, and attention-grabbing content, regardless of its accuracy. This creates a fertile ground for misleading ads, which is not conducive to a democratic information system.

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.