Our new investigation reveals Facebook approved incendiary ads targeted across the sectarian divide in Northern Ireland.
When political advertising was
limited to the TV and billboards, everyone got the chance to see what political
parties were saying. That meant that opponents had the opportunity to counter
their claims, helping hold them to account, and voters heard the same messages
as each other. That’s
not the case today.
Instead, digital tech platforms now
harvest our data from the things we say, like and follow on their own
platforms, the places we visit elsewhere on the internet and even the places we
28 June 2021, London - A series of inflammatory images and
language, in adverts targeted at individuals across the sectarian divide in
Northern Ireland, was approved by Facebook for publication shortly before the
violent riots earlier this year.
This ad was targeted to people in Northern
Ireland who Facebook has profiled as having an interest in Protestantism or the
Catholic Church as well as to people living either side of the peace wall in
west Belfast. Facebook approved this ad for publication.
Going into Facebook’s platform, we submitted political
ads for approval with sectarian slurs that potentially encouraged violent
protests in a way that violated Facebook’s policies. None of the content was
Street artists in Belfast, Northern Ireland maintain a tradition of painting murals with a message, as they did during the 30-year conflict between Catholic Republicans and Protestants loyal to the British crown. But they're now speaking out in an effort to repel renewed sectarian violence driven by Britain’s