Invisible election: How political parties target you for your vote

The public face of the election is of tightly-controlled rallies and the monotonous repetition of key phrases that even politicians are already fed up of.

But the real battle is happening elsewhere, underground and unseen – what we’re calling the Invisible Election.

Everybody in the country is being measured, followed and assessed for their views and how they might change. Everybody in the country is being given a score on their likelihood to vote for a party, their views on Brexit and actual likelihood to get to the ballot box.

Data from finance companies, insurance companies and social media is used to build this picture, much of it publicly available.

Then the right people – mums, dads, pensioners or parents – in the right houses, on the right streets in the right wards of the right constituencies are targeted with personalised messages.

As Professor Helen Margetts of the Oxford Internet Institute told us, this raises questions about election regulations.

She said: "It is totally non-transparent.

"That is, if a party has billboard or a party political broadcast on television everybody sees it and they know what they’re saying to people and they can assess that accordingly.

"But on a social media platform it’s a secret word that’s unique to a small group of people and we just don’t know what those advertisements are saying or how they are targeting people or about their accuracy.

"And I think that’s what’s different and that’s what’s worrying."

On the one hand, all this could just be seen as the modern day equivalent of the advertising hoarding. On another, it could be a way to get around strict limits on local campaign spending.

Prof Margetts said: "I think the electoral commission would say themselves that they don’t know very much about what’s going on.

"And they find it difficult to place any checks and balances on this and I think that’s something we should be looking at."

Indeed the Electoral Commission had recommended to the Government that this world of social media Big Data politics should be properly regulated to ensure the fairness of elections.

It had recommended new regulations in time for the next election, then presumed to be taking place in 2020. None of these regulations will be in place, partly because there has been no time to act on the recommendations after the Prime Minister called a snap election for 8 June.

In a statement, the Electoral Commission told Sky News: "The importance of transparency and of the regulation of (campaign) spending in this area is established in law.

"It is important that application of this regulation continues to evolve with campaigning, and the use of social media is the latest stage of this development.

"We continue to develop our understanding of how social media is used, and are pro-active in monitoring this type of campaigning, taking regulatory action where the rules are breached in order to ensure transparency on where money is being spent to influence voting."

:: Tom Cheshire – Murky tactics used to target voters on Facebook

Last election, the targeting of adverts on social media was part of the way that the Conservatives managed to turn around very large Liberal Democrat majorities with bigger swings than the national average.

The first stage of this in constituencies such as Vince Cable’s in Twickenham, was to canvas in non-Conservative wards, those voters who nonetheless rated David Cameron a better bet as PM than Ed Miliband. These voters were then the targets for "squeezing" with a concentrated message about Mr Miliband at No 10 supported by the SNP.

Targeted ads would then focus on individuals or types of voters: reassurance on the NHS or pensions for older voters and for younger voters the focus was the schools funding pledge.

In some seats, voters received personalised letters from David Cameron. It helped the Conservative campaign beat the national swing in the seats it needed for a majority in 2015.

Last year, the Leave campaigns did the same thing, one is currently being investigated by the Electoral Commission.

The Government, less successfully, also used taxpayers’ money to pay for targeted ads in support of the Remain campaign. Candidates in the US Presidential campaigns also used this method, Donald Trump most successfully.

It is now an inescapable part of our elections – but it is in the dark, with implications for our democracy.

And Sky News’ Invisible Election campaign needs your help to bring it into the light. Are you in receipt of targeted adverts on Facebook from political parties? Please screenshot them and email to invisibleelection@sky.uk, or tweet us screenshots to @skynews with hashtag #InvisibleElection.

(c) Sky News 2017: Invisible election: How political parties target you for your vote