Facebook have released the digital ads used during the campaign by Vote Leave, the DUP and BeLeave to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (HERE). I wasn't on Facebook at the time and probably wouldn't have received the ads anyway so although I know Vote Leave targeted specific groups, I had no idea what potential voters were seeing. Looking at the messages now is absolutely shocking. There is barely a word of truth in any of them.
The other organisation under the Vote Leave umbrella, Veterans for Britain, have refused permission for Facebook to release their ads so I assume they are even worse. The Advertising Standards Authority cannot investigate political ads (HERE) but there will be a lot of pressure to now bring it under proper control, at the very least with a code of practice.
Immigration was a consistent "dog whistle" theme although Vote Leave were highly critical of Leave.eu for their near racist bill board ads, they themselves were doing exactly the same through targeted under-the-radar ads on Facebook.
This is a huge scandal. Both sides may have been economical with the truth, but Vote managed to avoid using any at all. And these 1433 different ads were viewed 169 million times. They must have had a huge impact.
This micro targeting of ads compartmentalises things so you may see one ad but your neighbour sees another although you both perhaps voted leave, for wholly different reasons. This was the beauty of not having a comprehensive plan during the campaign. But now everyone can see all the ads, not just those intended for them or aimed at the group which Facebook thought they belonged to, and there might be a shock in store. The absence of a plan helped them during the campaign but it will surely be their downfall eventually as negotiations stall in Brussels.
And the way they got people's data was by offering a £50,000,000 prize in a football "competition" (HERE) that had odds of winning of 5 sextillion to one (that's 5 followed by 21 zeros) or to put it another way, virtually none at all. Apparently, an insider at he time described it as a "game changer".
At the same time that this news came through, Channel 4 are running a series of reports about Aaron Banks' South African diamond mine interests (HERE) and potential Russian involvement in them. His former business partner has filed papers in a Pretoria court making a lot of allegations which Banks has denied. It's all very murky.
Both Vote Leave (HERE) and Leave.eu look like extremely dubious organisations, with either dodgy funding or spending and who ruthlessly used questionable data and questionable methods to win a narrow victory in the most important but advisory referendum in this country's history with the potential to fundamentally change every detail of our lives for a generation or more. It will be pored over by historians for years to come and when all the stones are turned over, we will not like what we see. Underneath every one is something horrible and more putrefying than the one before.
If it turns out we were fed a lot of lies and dubious truths, through the deliberate misuse of people's personal data funded by Putin and some ill gotten Russian money what credibility would the campaign and the result have?
Finally, this morning it appears Donald Trump knew of his son and his son-in-laws meetings with a shadowy Russian in June 2016 according to his own lawyer (HERE). This is in spite of many denials. As the investigation closes in what damage is this going to do to Farage and Banks? The photograph of the terrible two laughing with The Donald in his gold plated lift at Trump Tower will haunt them forever. Let us hope.
Update: Channel 4 have produced a Fact Check on soe of the newly published Vote Leave ads (HERE).
Update: Channel 4 have produced a Fact Check on soe of the newly published Vote Leave ads (HERE).
