National's 92 male-only ads expose Meta's invisible political targeting
Political parties set broad audiences for Meta ads. Meta's algorithm then takes control. It learns who engages and narrows who sees each ad. This sometimes sends ads mainly to one type of person. It happens by itself, not because the party chose it.
But then Meta's algorithm takes control. It learns who engages with each ad.
Then it narrows who sees each one. Radio New Zealand looked at political ads this year.
National's ads reached 92 male-only audiences but just one female-only audience. The party says it didn't place that one ad.
Meta's algorithm, not the party's choices, was probably driving these patterns. Research shows this problem happens worldwide on Facebook.
- More than 500
- National ads
- 92
- Male-only ads
- 1
- Female-only ad
- Up to 3.9 million
- Views on some ads
Why it mattersVoters see different political messages based on algorithms only Meta controls. These algorithms are hidden from the public. Election fairness depends on knowing how ads really reach people.
AustraliaNo direct Australian effect yet, but Australian political advertisers use Meta's same systems and face identical algorithmic targeting with no visibility into final audiences.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 46 d ago
Open this story in InSnip →
