Regulating Digital Campaigning: The Need for Precision in Calls for Transparency

Abstract

Calls for transparency have become a prominent response to the challenges of overseeing online political campaigning, however, use of this term by policymakers often lacks precision about what is desired and how impacts can be secured. This article examines key policy documents and debates around digital campaigning in the United Kingdom, in particular, calls by the Electoral Commission, Information Commissioner's Office, and DCMS Select Committee for increased transparency. It argues that current policy prescriptions for transparency lack important detail about the types of information required. Indeed, rather than advocating a common response, we find that policy actors have different desires for financial, source, data, and targeting transparency that are not easy to appreciate. They also often fail to specify the form of transparency that is desired, specifically in relation to the audience, discoverability, comprehensibility, reliability, and impact of the information to be rendered transparent. This represents a clear challenge for those seeking to promote transparency, making it hard to establish clear metrics against which policy proposals can be measured. Future calls for transparency should, therefore, take care to be more precise, and should clearly specify both the type and form of transparency being called for.