Theresa May’s Downing Street speech last night may have seemed baffling to those watching at home but there may be a clue as to its purpose in how the government social media machine has used the footage.
Soon after she finished talking in Downing Street, the official UK government Facebook page began paying to promote a clip of her speaking under the banner “Brexit: Let’s Get On With It”.
The adverts, funded using public money, began running on Facebook last night and have already been seen at least two million times, according to the social network’s new advertising disclosure rules.
These views do not necessarily mean than a Facebook user bothered to watch any of the video – but they do mean that they saw a video in their newsfeed of Theresa May talking alongside the quote “You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side.”
Although the sums involved are not enormous – up to £10,000 has been spent promoting the video since last night – it is another example of how Facebook ads are being used to put pressure on MPs to back Brexit by directly targeting voters. One mysterious group campaigning for a hard Brexit, which has never revealed its financial backers, has spent almost £500,000 on targeted Facebook ads since last October.
Posted 5 years ago
