Becca Rinkevic is the Director of the Institute for Rebooting Social Media and formerly the Deputy Director of Digital Strategy at the White House under President Joe Biden. This week she and Elizabeth are tackling the role of big tech in election campaigns and political advertising. They talk about the involvement of representatives from social media companies in election advertising campaigns, the changes in these relationships before after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and what these relationships might look like in the future. They also talk about ways to report disinformation and harassment, guidelines around political advertising on social media, digital identities in the online environment, and the role of digital literacy.

Additional resources:

• Both Elizabeth and Becca mention Cambridge Analytica, a company that was hired by the Trump campaign in the run up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and subsequently found to have misused user data. A 2019 documentary, The Great Hack, was made about the events.
  
  
• Becca talks about the technique of social listening, a way of monitoring online information related to your brand to better understand what’s going on in that ecosystem.
  
  
• Becca mentions a Rebooting Social Media fellow—Elodie Vialle—who is developing an escalation channel for journalists to report harassment and attacks received on social media platforms. The project is still in the works, but keep your eye on the RSM website for further info.
  
  
• Elizabeth throws back to our last episode on the Meta Oversight Board with Julie Owono. Find it here.
  
  
• Becca mentions this political ad tracker created by Bully Pulpit Interactive, where she used to work as Director of Political Programs.
  
  
• Becca notes that both Facebook and Google have parameters around political advertising on their platforms. Find out more about Facebook policies here and Google policies here.

Check out www.polcommtech.ca for annotated transcripts of this episode in English and French.