Vast amounts of money are pouring into social media platforms. Yet legislators everywhere are yet to respond effectively.
The rise in political adverts on social media
The ICO has earned respect, and some admiration, across the world for its tough stance on Facebook, against whom itGeneral Data Protection Regulation They say all digital campaign material should have an imprint saying who is behind the campaign; that spending on election or referendum campaigns by foreign organisations or individuals should be prohibited; that fines should be bigger, and that their powers to obtain information outside a formal investigation should be strengthened.Director of Regulation, Louise Edwards, says the Electoral Commission wants new laws to make political campaigning online more transparent.
"You can use technology to effectively launder money into political campaigns in micro donations including from overseas and our electoral law was established to make sure voters could see who's campaigning on what, who's paying for it, who it's there to promote. And yet technology allows people to sidestep all of those rules and regulations."
The usual explanation proffered is that Brexit took up most of the bandwidth of Theresa May's administration, stifling the efforts of many reformers. It doesn't help at all that digital matters cut across several government departments; or that the rate of churn among cabinet ministers at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport is, at least to the civil servants who have to deliver their policies, an unfunny joke.
Above all, the companies that need the most regulation are usually a) American; b) global in reach; and c) domiciled in places where they can limit their tax liability. Getting international agreement on how to approach these complex issues is very tough.
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