Digital consultants are increasingly concerned that some campaigns may face repercussions this cycle from the growing tension between Silicon Valley and government regulators.
In the face of increasing regulatory scrutiny from Washington and state governments, the rhetoric coming from Silicon Valley’s top business leaders has been about tightening personal data controls and increased privacy.
While this could be the case of saying one thing and doing another, practitioners have noted that early changes on Facebook, for instance, are already making ad placement more cumbersome.
If increased regulation pushes Facebook and others further away from the role of digital public square, it could become more challenging for campaigns and groups to reach their supporters online.
“I think it is a real concern,” Brian Ross Adams, a California-based Democratic digital consultant, told C&E. “A lot of challengers who don’t raise as much money have relied on social media to get their message out.”
He pointed to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (N.Y.-D) as a prime example.
“These platforms have democratized people’s voices and their ability to get their message out,” Adams continued. “AOC would not have been elected if not for social media.”
At the end of April, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a speech declaring the company is pivoting from its role as the digital public square toward being a “privacy-focused social platform.”
The shift toward e-commerce and facilitating private conversations came as the company was curbing incentives for staff to sell political ads. Meanwhile, consultants were already complaining about the new ad approvals process that can take days to shake out.
“Some ads go up right away, some ads take three days to get approved,” said Adams. “It’s definitely changing how you have to plan and interact with that system.”
Facebook isn’t alone here. In early May, Apple CEO Tim Cook in an interview with ABC News declared that “privacy in itself has become a crisis,” after in an op-ed in January calling for government regulation of data providers.
Then Google CEO Sundar Pichai joined the conversation May 7 in a New York Times op-ed that used the word “privacy” 24 times. “To make privacy real, we give you clear, meaningful choices around your data … privacy cannot be a luxury good offered only to people who can afford to buy premium products and services,” Pichai wrote.
Meanwhile, YouTube is under pressure to take a more active role in content curation after the “Drunk Pelosi” video controversy and an uproar over its hosting perceived homophobic content.
These companies are having their own trouble adapting to the current environment, according to Steve Johnston, a Republican digital consultant who formerly worked for Google.
“Where privacy is concerned, until there's federal legislation, it's difficult for any single company to navigate what are vast, uncertain, and dynamic waters,” he said.
While Google, Apple and Facebook are promising to be stewards of the new “privacy” era, Twitter is taking a more active role in curating the speech on its platform. That has some on the right talking about abandoning the service for the less popular app Parler instead.
Many top practitioners have gotten used to this shifting terrain. The challenge they see on the horizon is one where some campaigns aren’t up to date on the latest restrictions and requirements, which will make getting their message out in a timely manner difficult.
“Maybe their digital media buy is going through their local campaign manager,” said Shannon Chatlos, vice president of digital at GOP firm Strategic Partners & Media. “Then that much more time is going to have to be spent on the digital media buy.”
Campaigns that don’t have the budget to afford a top firm’s retainer will need to be vigilant to ensure they’re getting the best advice.
“The rules change daily,” Chatlos said. “It’s incumbent upon every campaign to make sure you’ve hired consultants who know what they’re doing and care enough to put best practices into place every day.”