Facebook Ads: Politics of Migration in Italy

TL;DR

This study analyzes Facebook ads related to immigration in Italy, revealing targeted strategies by political parties based on geography and demographics, with increased activity around elections impacting public opinion.

Contribution

It introduces a novel use of Facebook Ads Library to monitor political advertising on immigration in Italy, highlighting targeted strategies and temporal patterns.

Findings

Parties target different demographics and regions in immigration ads.

Advertising volume increases around election periods.

Shift towards more general audiences in later advertising phases.

Abstract

Targeted online advertising is on the forefront of political communication, allowing hyper-local advertising campaigns around elections and issues. In this study, we employ a new resource for political ad monitoring -- Facebook Ads Library -- to examine advertising concerning the issue of immigration in Italy. A crucial topic in Italian politics, it has recently been a focus of several populist movements, some of which have adopted social media as a powerful tool for voter engagement. Indeed, we find evidence of targeting by the parties both in terms of geography and demographics (age and gender). For instance, Five Star Movement reaches a younger audience when advertising about immigration, while other parties' ads have a more male audience when advertising on this issue. We also notice a marked rise in advertising volume around elections, as well as a shift to more general audience. Thus, we illustrate political advertising targeting that likely has an impact on public opinion on a topic involving potentially vulnerable populations, and urge the research community to include online advertising in the monitoring of public discourse.