Facebook to let researchers access election ad data from Feb 1

Facebook will let researchers access, for the first time, the targeting information for more than 1.3 million social issue, electoral and political ads through the Facebook Open Research and Transparency (FORT) platform from February 1.

This data package includes ads that ran during the three-month period prior to the US Election Day, from August 3 to November 3, 2020.

“We created this tool to enable academic researchers to study the impact of Facebook’s products on elections, and included measures to protect people’s privacy and keep the platform secure,” the social network said in a statement on Monday.

Understanding how advertisers choose to target audiences is key to learning more about the impact of digital ads on specific events like elections.