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Elizabeth Bratton writes about a recent investigation by Channel 4. It has emerged that the Trump campaign attempted to discourage Black Americans from voting in the 2016 election, by labelling 3.5 million citizens "Deterrence". Cambridge Analytica, a data-harvesting company that closed in 2018, is thought to have promoted "dark ads" towards specific groups. While this micro-targeting has caused much controversy, Trump has not been accused of acting illegally.
Channel 4 News recently revealed that the Trump campaign attempted to dissuade 3.5 million Black Americans from voting in the 2016 election. They were labelled simply as "Deterrence".
Consisting of more than 5000 files and 5 terabytes worth of data, the leak has been deemed "one of the biggest in history". The campaign collected almost 200 million citizens' details, which were then used to tailor advertising and marketing campaigns. Americans were sorted into one of eight categories: one of which was "Deterrence". The campaign hoped that these people would avoid the ballots on election day.
According to recent analysis, Black Americans were disproportionately targeted by Project Alamo. 32% of Georgia's population consists of Black people, yet they made up 61% of the 'Deterrence' category in this state. A similar pattern followed in North Carolina, where 22% of the population is Black, yet represented 46% of "Deterrence". Only 5.4% of Wisconsin's citizens are Black, yet made up 17% of the category.
Nationwide, 54% of "deterred" voters were people of colour. 16 "swing" states were targeted.
In 2016, Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign's digital director, confirmed that micro-targeting was in use. Of social media marketing, he clarified "only the people we want to see it, see it." He recognised that this would decrease Clinton's overall number of votes - something that the team had "modelled". Over two years later, he reiterated: "I would say I'm nearly 100 percent sure we did not run any campaigns that targeted African Americans, which people think is crazy."
Arguably the most renowned tactic used by the Republicans was that of "dark adverts" on Facebook. These disappeared from users' feeds once the campaign stopped funding them, and often accused Hillary Clinton of making racist remarks. In one advert, the Republicans argued that she described Black Americans as "super predators" in 1996. Discussing anti-gang measures, the Democrat argued: "They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators – no conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first, we have to bring them to heel.” Clinton apologised for these remarks in 2016, however they were still used to Trump's advantage.
Project Alamo was supported by members of data-analysis company Cambridge Analytica, who worked closely alongside some of the Republican National Committee. The now-disbanded British firm is thought to have coordinated a separate "attack ad" against the Democrats. It portrayed a Black woman, apparently a Clinton supporter, walking off set while abandoning her script. She exclaims, "I just don't believe what I'm saying". When the faux-crew remind her she is simply acting, she replies: "I'm not that good of an actress."
Watch the clip here.
In total, the Trump campaign spent £34 million on Facebook advertisements, having generated more than 6 million overall. However, there is currently no way of identifying the exact ads promoted by Trump's team, nor the exact identities of those who received them. Cambridge Analytica closed in 2018, after being scrutinised by a range of journalists. Two ex-employees are now on the Trump 2020 campaign team.
Trump's tactics may have had the desired effect. One study found that, in 2016, the Black voter turnout rate decreased for the first time in 20 years. However, there were other factors at play. For example, legislation that required voters to carry suitable photo ID was thought to be discriminatory. Rep. David Bowen believed the impact was "significant" on minority groups, while courts confirmed that minority voters were less likely to possess acceptable paperwork.
One Facebook spokesperson told Channel 4: "Since 2016, elections have changed and so has Facebook — what happened with Cambridge Analytica couldn’t happen today. We have 35,000 people working to ensure the integrity of our platform, created a political ads library … and have protected more than 200 elections worldwide. We also have rules prohibiting voter suppression and are running the largest voter information campaign in American history.”
Trump has dismissed the allegations as "fake news".
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