The Facebook Algorithm's Active Role in Climate Advertisement Delivery

TL;DR

This study reveals that Facebook's advertising delivery algorithm actively influences the distribution of climate change ads, potentially overriding targeting settings and impacting misinformation and advocacy efforts.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence that the Facebook ad delivery algorithm can act as an autonomous actor, affecting ad destinations beyond advertiser control.

Findings

Algorithm influences ad destinations by state, gender, age

Delivery behavior often diverges from targeting intentions

Implications for climate communication and misinformation

Abstract

Communication strongly influences attitudes on climate change. Within sponsored communication, high spend and high reach advertising dominates. In the advertising ecosystem we can distinguish actors with adversarial stances: organizations with contrarian or advocacy communication goals, who direct the advertisement delivery algorithm to launch ads in different destinations by specifying targets and campaign objectives. We present an observational (N=275,632) and a controlled (N=650) study which collectively indicate that the advertising delivery algorithm could itself be an actor, asserting statistically significant influence over advertisement destinations, characterized by U.S. state, gender type, or age range. This algorithmic behaviour may not entirely be understood by the advertising platform (and its creators). These findings have implications for climate communications and misinformation research, revealing that targeting intentions are not always fulfilled as requested and that delivery itself could be manipulated.