The Representation of the People Bill, the Rycroft Review and the future of online political ads in the UK

Another missed opportunity to fix gaping holes in digital campaign rules?

When it was published, the UK Government’s Representation of the People Bill (RoPB) was something of a disappointment for us.

While it contains a lot of things that are good for democracy, it was absent of anything much that would improve the state of online campaigning, which has exploded over the last twenty years without commensurate regulation or safeguards.

The Bill also seemed designed to be unamendable in that respect. There just weren’t any hooks to hang relevant changes on. It was largely a Bill about the franchise, not about election campaigns.

But this seems to be changing.

Enter Rycroft

Last week, the Rycroft Review into foreign influence in UK elections was published. Immediately the Government committed to:

• A £100,000 annual political donation cap for UK citizens living abroad

• A moratorium on cryptocurrency donations to parties and candidates.

The Review also commented on two areas where digital influence plays a role in UK elections.

The first is illicit foreign influence, with the recommendation that the Government needs more senior oversight, coordination and resources to deal with it.

The second is political advertising, where the Review recommended:

• A full ban on foreign political advertising

• Adding information about who paid for an ad (not just who “promoted it”)

• Bringing influencers inside the definition of paid political advertising

Lastly, even though Rycroft said it was outside the scope of his work:

“I have heard enough evidence to suggest that there would be considerable benefit to transparency of online advertising if the government were to use its convening power to work with social media companies to extend the practice and to achieve consistency in how advert libraries are presented.”

A legislative opening?

Some MPs are now pushing for ad libraries to become law.

Emily Darlington (Lab) has proposed an amendment to the RoPB to create a “Repository of Online Political Advertising” with clear standards set out in law, to be determined by collaboration between the Electoral Commission, Information Commissioner and Ofcom (and whoever they consult).

We agree with this, and the general direction of Rycroft’s recommendation. However, his argument that “the government should use its convening power to work with social media companies to extend the practice and to achieve consistency in how advert libraries are presented” does worry us.

Platforms won’t do this alone

Ad libraries have, so far, been a private effort by social media companies to meet the PR disaster that flowed from the Russian influence and Cambridge Analytica scandals of 2016-2018. Currently, Meta’s is quite good (lots of ads, searchable, data on spending, targeting and messaging). Google’s is quite bad (fewer ads and actors, not very searchable, no useful API). Snap offers a minimal spreadsheet dump. TikTok saw the pummelling Meta and others took over political ads and decided not to accept them at all. Other services offering digital ads usually have no transparency at all.

Despite years of discussion, and direct attempts by us and others to start a conversation about common standards, the platforms haven’t done so. So, in our view, “convening” won’t help - it needs some legislative force behind it (which the Darlington amendment would supply).

The risk of getting regulation wrong

Any regulation of online political advertising needs to be put together quite delicately. In several cases where it has been brought in around the world, the platforms withdrew their services, citing “regulatory uncertainty” and “being forced to offer two-tier services”. For example, Google left the Canadian political ad market in 2018 and Brazil’s in 2024. In the EU, both Meta and Google left last year.

As much as many people don’t like political ads, on social media, they are better than no ads at all. ​​A world with no paid political ads isn’t neutral. It’s one where party and candidate visibility is determined by (increasingly biased, political) platform dynamics.

So let’s get it right

We recommend the UK builds regulation on six principles:

1. Verification
   Political ads should be traceable to accountable, UK-based actors.

2. Common data standards
   Covering content, spending and targeting to allow for cross-platform and cross-election comparison.

3. Timely disclosure
   Data on ads should be available within 24-72hrs

4. Accessible data
   Open access for researchers, journalists and civil society

5. API-first approach
   Require structured data access, rather than expensive and inconsistent user interfaces

6. Proportionate enforcement
   A single regulator, with realistic penalties aligned to market size offering plenty of opportunity to comply before enforcement takes place.

The coming months will decide whether the UK can move toward a statutory, standardised transparency regime or continues to rely on fragmented, platform-led approaches.

Regulation isn’t without risk - if the Government goes for too much, the platforms will likely walk away. But if the UK can thread the needle of effective regulation and standards-making, it could set a precedent for new global norms for how political campaigns are conducted.

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Other updates from Who Targets Me

• We’re working with Full Fact on tracking misleading claims made in political ads in the run up to the local, Scottish and Welsh elections next month.

• Trends now offers specific dashboards for Scotland, Wales and England, to help with tracking activity across those campaigns.

• You can also now access data for individual advertisers on Meta (you’ll need a supporter or journalist account for access)

• We’ve been working with election observation missions in a number of countries over the last several months (Bangladesh, Colombia and Peru to name a few). EOMs are a vital part of helping countries run better elections and protect their democracies. We’re proud to support them.

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Team Who Targets Me