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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 6d

Fortunately, metatargetr has already archived two years of global political ad spending and targeting data on Meta, at least making historical analysis possible for the future.

You can check it out here: github.com/favstats/met....

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 6d

Front page of @lechobe.bsky.social today: one of the last live looks at political ad spending in Europe, powered by metatargetr.

With Meta’s upcoming ban, paid political ads in the digital sphere will vanish from view.. but it will not spell the end of paid political influence.

lnkd.in/ephiha3S

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 8d

the comments are as disgusting as you can imagine

Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 8d

Some fresh hell: a TikTok account that just posts AI videos of sinking ships full of people.

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Reposted by Fabio Votta📊🐧

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 9d

In Moldova, in the week to the 25th Sept (the latest we have data for), the pro-EU PAS party and civil society organisations together bought nearly 50% of political advertising on Meta. The pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc bought just under 2% of the total.

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 9d

Apparently it is still possible to access the data via Big Query.. though that's far less accessible for a large share of people who want to investigate political advertising.

bsky.app/profile/darl...

Geert Van Damme @darlinggeert.bsky.social · 10d

But!!!!
There is a timetravel option in BigQuery

SELECT *
FROM bigquery-public-data.google_political_ads.advertiser_geo_spend
FOR SYSTEM_TIME AS OF TIMESTAMP('2025-09-22 00:00:00+00')

lets you make a copy of the data from a few days ago.

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 9d

Absolutely shameful. There was zero reason for Google to remove historical data. They could have just kept a copy running.

Now many tools I've built alongside @whotargets.me for more election transparency in the EU are effectively defunct.

Overall, a great loss for researchers and the public.

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 10d

Google has removed its political ad library in the EU, including historical data. A big loss for transparency and accountability. Shameful.

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Reposted by Fabio Votta📊🐧

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 15d

On what the American takeover of US TikTok could mean for online political ads:
whotargets.me/en/does-us-o...

Does US ownership of TikTok matter for political ads and campaigns? – Who Targets Me

whotargets.me

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 14d

Ten years ago, I took part in NMUN. After visiting the General Assembly Hall, I uploaded this image with the caption: “We either learn to swim together or we drown separately.”

Today, I mourn that we seem to be on the exact opposite trajectory from what I had hoped for.

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 17d

Curious about more breakdowns on TARGETING during #TK25? Best to consult this dashboard:

favstats.github.io/nl25/targeti...

Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 17d

Curious about more breakdowns on spending during the #TK2025? Best to consult this link:
trends.whotargets.me/dashboard/co...

Netherlands | All parties | Google & Meta

trends.whotargets.me

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 17d

Despite the fact that Meta is poised to ban political ads on their platforms by October 10th, Dutch parties are ramping up spending, about 160k Euro in past 30 days 🇳🇱

As always I will be tracking targeting (w/ @whotargets.me) as long as ads run.

Ex.: D66 is heavily trying to reach younger people!

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 19d

Great to see this out! With @bsky.charispapaevangelou.eu we analyse the DSA “Statement of Reasons” database, the EU-mandated archive of moderation decisions by online platforms. We examine what kind of platform observability the database affords & find large regional and cross-platform differences.

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Reposted by Fabio Votta📊🐧

Internet Policy Review @policyr.bsky.social · 20d

[New paper] Trading nuance for scale? Platform observability and content governance under the DSA, By
@bsky.charispapaevangelou.eu & @favstats.eu policyreview.info/articles/ana... #DSA

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash. Free license: https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/impression-damour-bleu-et-blanc-sur-mur-en-beton-gris-avjGi7AgBPE

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 23d

Is this the first time ever that Donald Trump publicly labeled something that he attempted to do was a failure?

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Reposted by Fabio Votta📊🐧

Who Targets Me @whotargets.me · 26d

Ben Guerin, whose agency has contributed to multiple winning election campaigns in the UK and beyond, on why the EU's political ad regulation seems to be turning into an own goal.

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Fabio Votta📊🐧 @favstats.eu · 26d

up - right - down - down - down. the arrows are possibly a reference to the game Helldivers 2 where you can call an airstrike with that combination.