On Monday 14 May, the European Digital Rights (EDRi) organisation wrote to the six main political groups at the European Parliament to ask them to make a commitment not to pay for micro-targeting on Facebook or any other platform during their campaigns in the 2019 European elections.
“Politicians have asked everyone else to 'self-regulate', now it is their turn to turn words into deeds”, said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of European Digital Rights (EDRi).
The practice of micro-targeting, as revealed in the Cambridge/Analytica/Facebook affair (see EUROPE 11999), allows for the personal data of people to be used as a means to categorise people on the basis of their personality and manipulate them for political or commercial purposes.
In its letters, the EDRi points out to the different political groups the many different positions it has taken that call for self regulation of digital companies, the media and advertisers. It also highlights the central role the political parties can play for preventing electoral manipulation being turned into a viable business model.
The EDRi is awaiting a firm commitment from the European political groups in this connection and states that, “One effective way of stopping political micro-targeting is having the discipline and courage not to engage in it”. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)