TikTok's New Restrictions on Political Accounts

Advertising

GOP Takes Large Lead in Outside Spending Battle527Tracker.com"SLF alone continues to outspend pretty much every major Democratic Super PAC combined, both House and Senate, that’s how much money they are moving. When you add in CLF, who dropped $18 million this week on top of the $15 million they spent last week"

Campaigns

GOP Candidates Strip Abortion and Trump Connections From Their Campaign WebsitesTheDailyBeast.com"According to a review of archived internet pages by The Daily Beast, at least five House GOP candidates in battleground districts wiped mentions of Trump or the 2020 election from their websites or social media after winning their primaries. And at least seven removed or significantly modified language about abortion on their web sites over the summer."

John Fetterman wipes Black Lives Matter section from campaign site amid attacks over crimeFoxNews.com"The "issues" page on Fetterman's website currently includes sections on inflation, criminal justice reform, legalizing cannabis, renewable energy, immigration and several other topics, but doesn't include any section devoted to Black Lives Matter. Archived copies of the page, though, show that as recently as Aug. 22, the same page highlighted Fetterman's commitment to Black Lives Matter."

How Can Campaigns Actually Persuade Voters?CampaignInnovation.org"Campaigns should move early to positively introduce their candidate as well as to define their opponents to as broad an audience as possible. Advertising early will build up voters’ prior knowledge about candidates, making them less susceptible to later persuasion efforts."

Disinformation

US politicians tweet far more misinformation than those in the UK and Germany – new researchTheConversation.com"For Republicans, overall around 4% (one in 25) links were untrustworthy compared with around 0.4% (one in 250) among Democrats, and that gap has widened in the last few years. Since 2020, more than 5% of Republican tweets contained links to untrustworthy information. Democrats have remained stable and predominantly share information that is trustworthy."

Fundraising

NRSC Tested WinRed Petition Pages and Raised Six Times MoreWinRed.com"In one statistically significant test conducted, the WinRed variant raised 6x what the WordPress variant raised."

International

Hello, fellow kids: Italian politicians turn to TikTok for votes.NYTimes.com"Despite the efforts of politicians to reach a different audience, abstention still seems to be the main threat to the parties, and to Italian democracy.“They used to say, ‘Squares are full and the ballot boxes are empty,’” Ms. Ferretti said. “Now it’s more social media is full, and the ballot boxes are empty.”"

Italy backs ban on data tracking in political ads, France hesitatesEuractiv.com"France also reiterated its support for the suggestion it introduced during its time at the helm of the EU Council earlier this year that rules should be tightened during electoral periods, temporarily placing greater restrictions on the use of targeting and amplification techniques reliant on personal data."

Social Media

TikTok to require verification of political accounts and ban political fundraisingCNN.com"Under the coming changes, politicians and political parties will not be allowed to ask TikTok users for donations or direct them to fundraising websites, the company said."

• Updating our policies for political accounts (NewsRoom.TikTok.com)