Facebook Political Ad Collector
Facebook Political Ad Collector
- Website
- Facebook Political Ad Collector
Founded in 2017
This tool shows users the advertisements on their Facebook feeds and guesses which ones are political. It also shows users political advertisements aimed at other users. All political ads that are collected are put into a database that is publicly available.
Facebook Political Ad Collector is not affiliated with RAND. It was selected for this database because it fits our researchers' inclusion criteria.
- Tool type
- Disinformation tracking
- Status
- Fully operational
- Intended users
- General public
- Cost
- Free
- Tool focus
- This tool is both content- and process-focused. It directly evaluates information (e.g., authenticating a photo), but also assesses how information is produced and disseminated.
- Method or technology
- Crowdsourcing
- Is the tool automated?
- Yes
- Founding organization
- The Globe and Mail (Formerly by Propublica)
- Founder/primary contact
- Tom Cardoso
How is this tool working to address disinformation?
The tool has two aims. First, it seeks to provide users with more information about online targeting. This encourages people to be more aware of targeted advertisements and disinformation, and thus become more resilient to it. Second, the tool builds a database of political advertisements and targeting, aiming to put pressure on big tech companies to change their practices regarding transparency and how they handle political ads.
Is there a connection with tech platforms?
Yes. Facebook Political Ad Collector operates on Facebook's platform exclusively through a browser extension.
Who is funding the tool?
Information not available
Are there external evaluations?
None found