A brief description of the G20 digital advertising policy, researcher DCU and colleagues referred to in the Leaders’ Declaration

The main goal of the brief is to recommend transparency mechanisms, parameters and ways of accessing data from digital platforms for use in global and local contexts. The recommendations are based on a comparative analysis of public documentation and terms of use of the main online platforms and case studies from four different regions: Brazil, the USA, Ireland and Thailand.

One of the issues identified in the study cited in the report points to political advertising. Comparative analysis has shown that there are differences in what is considered political between different online platforms. In the absence of a legally binding regulatory framework, the definition of what defines a political issue is devolved to private social media corporations and, in many cases, advertisers themselves, leading to frequent errors – either due to advertiser negligence or a lack of well-defined criteria.

Other issues identified include a lack of transparency in microtargeting practices, a lack of consistency in tools and policies across regions, and a lack of visibility and control over who places digital ads.

The team behind the brief includes researchers from the Federal University of Rio De Janeiro, social media campaign group Sleeping Giants, Clemson University and Chulalongkorn University.

The last G20 Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro on November 18 and 19.