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Although deepfakes are conventionally regarded as dangerous, we know little about how deepfakes are perceived, and which potential motivations drive doubt in the believability of deepfakes versus authentic videos. To better understand the audience's perceptions of deepfakes, we ran an online experiment (N = 829) in which participants were randomly exposed to a politician's textual or audio-visual authentic speech or a textual or audio-visual manipulation (a deepfake) where this politician's speech was forged to include a radical right-wing populist narrative. In response to both textual disinformation and deepfakes, we inductively assessed (1) the perceived motivations for expressed doubt and uncertainty in response to disinformation and (2) the accuracy of such judgments. Key findings show that participants have a hard time distinguishing a deepfake from a related authentic video, and that the deepfake's content distance from reality is a more likely cause for doubt than perceived technological glitches. Together, we offer new insights into news users' abilities to distinguish deepfakes from authentic news, which may inform (targeted) media literacy interventions promoting accurate verification skills among the audience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of warning labels on political advertisements is one way to help citizens better evaluate the source and veracity of messaging, and combat the harms of misinformation on social media. Reliance on labeling is part of a larger policy push for greater transparency on social media platforms with respect to the source and quality of information. In this study, we test the effectiveness of “traffic light” labels (red, orange, green) as indicia of the veracity of political advertisements on YouTube. In an online experiment (N=1,054), we test seven variations of TL-veracity labels and find that red and orange traffic light labels placed concurrently with the start of a political advertisement significantly affect credibility perceptions. Taken together, the findings suggest that direct-to-consumer labels can be effective inputs to credibility perceptions, but their effectiveness depends on timing and position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Facebook Ad Library promises to improve transparency and accountability in online advertising by rendering personalised campaigns visible to the public. This article investigates whether and how journalists have made use of this tool in their reporting. Our content analysis of print journalism reveals several different use cases, from high-level reporting on political campaigns to uncovering specific wrongdoings such as disinformation, hate speech, and astroturfing. However, our interviews with journalists who use the Ad Library show that they remain highly critical of this tool and its manifold limitations. We argue that these findings offer empirical grounding for the public regulation of ad archives, since they underscore both the public interest in advertising disclosures as well as the growing reliance of journalists on voluntary and incomplete access frameworks controlled by the very platforms they aim to scrutinise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data-driven campaigning has become one of the key foci for academic and non-academic audiences interested in political communication. Widely seen to have transformed political practice, it is often argued that data-driven campaigning is a force of significant democratic disruption because it contributes to a fragmentation of political discourse, undermines prevailing systems of electoral accountability and subverts 'free' and 'fair' elections. In this article, we present one of the very first cross-national analyses of data-driven campaigning by political parties. Drawing on empirical research conducted by experts in six advanced democracies, we show that the data-driven campaign practices seen to threaten democracy are often not manifest in party campaigns. Instead, we see a set of practices that build on pre-existing techniques and which are far less sophisticated than is often assumed. Indeed, we present evidence that most political parties lack the capacity to execute the hyper-intensive practices often associated with data-driven campaigning. Hence, while there is reason to remain alert to the challenges data-driven campaigning produces for democratic norms, we argue that this practice is not inherently disruptive, but rather exemplifies the evolving nature of political campaigning in the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political microtargeting is the subject of heated societal debate but not much is known about its effects, especially in non-US contexts. Microtargeting, used by political actors to send citizens tailored messages, could have the potential to overcome barriers that make generic political messages less effective. In this article, we present a small-scale field experiment, which serves as a case study to illustrate how microtargeting's effects on citizens could be measured. The field experiment showed that receiving a microtargeted message via postal mail increased likelihood to vote for the microtargeting party, but this increase did not translate into actual votes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political advertisers have access to increasingly sophisticated microtargeting techniques. One such technique is tailoring ads to the personality traits of citizens. Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of this political microtargeting (PMT) technique. In two experiments, we investigate the causal effects of personality-congruent political ads. In Study 1, we first assess participants' extraversion trait by means of their own text data (i.e., by using a personality profiling algorithm), and in a second phase, target them with either a personality-congruent or incongruent political ad. In Study 2, we followed the same protocol, but instead targeted participants with emotionally-charged congruent ads, to establish whether PMT can be effective on an affect-based level. The results show evidence that citizens are more strongly persuaded by political ads that match their own personality traits. These findings feed into relevant and timely contributions to a salient academic and societal debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deepfakes are perceived as a powerful form of disinformation. Although many studies have focused on detecting deepfakes, few have measured their effects on political attitudes, and none have studied microtargeting techniques as an amplifier. We argue that microtargeting techniques can amplify the effects of deepfakes, by enabling malicious political actors to tailor deepfakes to susceptibilities of the receiver. In this study, we have constructed a political deepfake (video and audio), and study its effects on political attitudes in an online experiment (N = 278). We find that attitudes toward the depicted politician are significantly lower after seeing the deepfake, but the attitudes toward the politician's party remain similar to the control condition. When we zoom in on the microtargeted group, we see that both the attitudes toward the politician and the attitudes toward his party score significantly lower than the control condition, suggesting that microtargeting techniques can indeed amplify the effects of a deepfake, but for a much smaller subgroup than expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political microtargeting is sometimes presented as a revolution in political campaigning. Sending citizens tailored political messages is considered effective, efficient, and modern, especially in the Netherlands. In this article we dive deeper into the concept of microtargeting. We compare modern-day microtargeting and political campaigns in the pre-mass party era, who already tailored political messages to individual citizens as early as in the 1900's. We describe similarities and differences between the 'old' and 'new' campaigns to illustrate how, conceptually, both forms of 'microtargeting' do not differ that much. Finally, we conclude that while the concept may be similar, the practice does differ. Technology not only enables political parties to reach unparalleled levels of granularity, but also to spread messages on an incomparable scale. Thus, we may speak of old wine in new bottles. But the new bottles may be so dominant that they have changed the old taste of the wine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tailored political messages are increasingly prevalent in election time, but we know little about how people perceive such data-driven and potentially privacy-infringing techniques. This article examines how demographics relate to privacy concerns and attitudes toward "political behavioral targeting" (PBT), how privacy concerns and attitudes toward PBT relate over time, and explore their relation with autonomy, electoral deliberation, and chilling effects. Using a three-wave panel study, administered in the Netherlands (N = 879), we examine a potential reciprocal relation between attitude toward PBT and privacy concerns, which may form a negative reinforcing spiral dynamic over time. This dynamic could result in undesirable behavior of the voter from a democratic viewpoint (e.g. chilling effects). We find that demographics fall short in explaining privacy concerns. More importantly, we find evidence for a reinforcing spiral dynamic and, by doing so, contribute to the discussion about the threats and promises of PBT to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]