Good governance / Money in politics
We do not have real costs for campaigns on social media
Preliminary financial reports on campaign expenses of candidates in the second round of presidential elections in Croatia again do not reflect the real costs of advertising on social networks.
Report campaign costs on social media separately!
Preliminary reports published before the first round of presidential elections present a step forward towards a more complete picture of election campaigns on the networks, but there is still much room for improvement.
Questions for Dubravka Šuica that she needs to answer
Before Dubravka Šuica takes over the duty as a vice-president of European Commission and becomes commissioner for demography and democracy, Gong finds crucial that she comes forward about the content of her mandate. During hearings of candidates for EU Commissioners Ms Šuica should be asked these questions:
We have to get the exact costs for Facebook campaigns
The data from the SEC financial reports and the social media reports for the European Parliament election show that the amount spent, which Gong warned about even before the election, is not possible to precisely define and it is necessary to more clearly regulate political advertising on social media and digital platforms
Ads are not labeled as political, and some don't even appear
The election campaign for the European Parliament in 2019 was the first election campaign in which we have had a somewhat better insight into a political advertisement on social media, especially on Facebook. In accordance to the promise of increasing transparency in advertising which Facebook has given to the European Union, the campaign has provided the public several tools for better understanding of targeted political ads. However, these tools are new, some of the policies are practised inconsistently and it is not quite clear what are the consequences for those who don't follow the advertising rules.
