Dark Advertising and the Democratic Process

Saunders’ chapter focuses on political advertising. What, he asks, is it about the microtargeting of political advertising on social media in the Brexit campaign and Donald Trump elections (as spearheaded by Cambridge Analytica) that is so wrong? His response is that, like dog whistle politics, sending different advertising to different targets can obscure the open public discussion of policy that is critical to the democratic process. As such, dark advertising stands as a real threat to democracy.